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Subject:Re: OFFSHORING ARTICLE/Non-Writers As Writers From:"Dick Margulis " <margulis -at- mail -dot- fiam -dot- net> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Mon, 10 Nov 2003 13:56:56 -0500
Bruce Byfield <bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com> wrote:
> At the same time, I've seen a number of people
>with a gift for words who haven't been able to become any sort of professional
>writer. I suspect that the difference between a professional writer and an
>amateur often isn't a matter of talent, but of discipline and persistence ...
Dick adds:
I think another--maybe the key--difference between talented amateur and professional is the ability to separate the work from the person.
Many years ago, at the beginning of my first job as a paid writer, I handed my boss my first efforts and he proceeded to tear them apart. Yeah, my eyes started to well up. My boss saw that and taught me a lesson that's stayed with me: This isn't about you; it's about the words on the paper.
In my experience, the people who have the hardest time as tech writers are the ones who don't get that, who think any criticism of the work is a criticism of their fragile, low-self-esteem selves.
Getting past that can be as hard or as easy as you make it, but I think the transition is one of the key markers of the path toward professionalism.
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