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Subject:Creativity: TW vs fiction writing skills From:Bruce Byfield <bbyfield -at- AXIONET -dot- COM> Date:Mon, 31 Mar 1997 18:46:23 -0500
On 29 Mar 97 at 11:58, Chris Hargens wrote:
> Is it common for technical writers to write "creative" >work--fiction, poetry, personal essays,and so on? Can the practice of technical writing--here I mean something like eight hours a day five days a week--inhibit "creative" writing?
I can tell you one thing: technical writing seems to inhibit other types
of writing far less than teaching at any level does. Both writing and
teaching seem to draw on the same sources of creativity, but focusing on
one seems to leave little time for the other.
By contrast, switching from tech-writing to other kinds of writing is
far easier to me.
I also think that tech-writing can teach you habits that are useful for
other types of writing--things like self-discipline and precision.
--
Bruce Byfield (bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com)
Technical Writer
IBM WAVE Group
Burnaby, BC, Canada
h: (604) 421-7189 o: (604) 293-5781
"Doubtless a distrust of human reason is reasonable, but
few adventures are more honourable than an attempt to
live by it."
--Eric Gill, "An Essay on Typography"
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