Words on a page

I’m not usually the sentimental type. But sometimes the urge to look back grips me and my mind turns to the past. Sometimes it’s to reflect on triumphs. Sometimes on mistakes. There’s always a lesson to be learned, or I can find a a solution or a new approach to a problem.

This time around, though, it was a reflection of how my writing career has evolved and mutated over the last 10 years. It’s been a long, interesting trip. To say the least. A few ups, as many (maybe even more) downs, and a gradual change in focus.

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Each December, I take some time to go over how the current year’s freelancing went and to plan for next year. This year, though, I’ve decided to take another route. December has been a time to reflect on my freelance career.

I’ve been quite fortunate in that I’ve been able to make a good living over the last few years as a full-time freelance writer (mainly freelance technical writing). Even when I was working for The Man, my freelance writing brought in a decent to substantial portion of my income, and allowed me to express myself in ways that I couldn’t in my day job. Admittedly, that day job also involved writing but …  Read more... (350 words, 1 image, estimated 1:24 mins reading time)

Last week, I spoke at the Free Software Open Source Symposium (FSOSS) at Seneca College here in Toronto. It was an interesting experience, partly because this was the first Open Source event I’ve been to in quite a while, and the first time I’ve spoken to an audience of people involved in Open Source development and tech writing.

On top of that, my presentation was one of three back-to-back sessions on writing. Both were very interesting, but the one that came after mine was more so. Why? It was about making a living writing about Open Source.

Here’s a quick report.

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Been trying to catch up on some of my reading, and came across two blog posts by Bruce Byfield that I’d bookmarked. Both posts struck a chord with me, mainly because it was nice to see another writer (and a fellow Canadian ) thinking along the same lines about these things as me.

Myths

First up, Byfield’s thoughts on nine myths would-be writers need to forget. I don’t know how many times I’ve heard wannabe or even beginning writers spout some variation of eight of those myths. The three most pernicious of them, in my experience, are:  Read more... (384 words, estimated 1:32 mins reading time)

Writers are a lot like actors. We get stereotyped. Pigeonholed. Typecast. Sometimes, it’s our own fault. We get comfortable in a particular niche, and get identified with it. And it can be hard to break out of that niche. But do you really need to?

A while back, my business partner Aaron talked about whether or not a technical writer can switch niches. As Aaron wrote:

Specialization commands a premium in many fields, including medical writing, aerospace, and telecommunications. Is it possible to switch from one niche to another after spending the bulk of your career focused on a specific domain? It seems to me that there are those who find a niche and stick with it, and others that gain a broader range of experience by working in different fields.

It’s the idea of specialization that intrigues me, and I recently ran into an example of specialization helping someone switch niches.

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