RE: New TECHWR-L Poll Question

["Glenn Maxey" <glenn -dot- maxey -at- voyanttech -dot- com>]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Deborah Ray [mailto:debray -at- raycomm -dot- com]
> Sent: Monday, October 01, 2001 9:01 AM
> To: TECHWR-L
> Subject: New TECHWR-L Poll Question
> 
> 
> Do you, a technical writer, write outside of your 
> regular job?

I went into technical writing from engineering because I wanted to
establish some "muscle-memory" in writing before embarking on the great
American novel. That was in 1993. 

It was a former housemate of mine who turned me on to tech writing and
its benefits (like being able to play with technology, point out its
deficiencies, and not be responsible for fixing it.)

However, I seem to have fallen into the same trap that he did. When you
spend your working day writing words or mulling over words (many times
boring technical words) for someone else, the last thing you want to do
is write more when you get home and on your time.

I wouldn't mind working either (a) four 10 hour days or (b) four 8 hour
days (part-time) so that I could get an extra day for my writing that
wasn't a Saturday or Sunday that some other club, group, or honey-do
wants to book. I don't yet have support from management or HR.

Or maybe I should take a page from John Grisholm's former legal work
ethics. He used to arrive at his law firm at like 5:30 a.m., turn on all
the lights, get some coffee, and get to work on his computer. His
co-workers thought he was so hard-core and dedicated. In reality, he was
working on his now-famous books from 5:30 until 8 or 9 when everybody
else arrived.

He managed to work on his stuff at a part of the day when he was
mentally fresh while at the same time giving an impression of total
company dedication.

But man-o-mighty, I'm already starting to have problems getting out of
bed at 6:30 which is already noticably much darker than it was last week
at that time. 

Glenn Maxey
Voyant Technologies, Inc.
Tel. +1 303.223.5164
Fax. +1 303.223.5275
glenn -dot- maxey -at- voyanttech -dot- com

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