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The AI Ate My Homework: an Epic Saga of Love and Betrayal
What happens when AI integrates itself into everyday life? What happens when that integration goes away? I decided to have a bit of fun with this question and asked ChatGPT to tell me a story about it. The platform practically wrote a parable! So, given that, let’s look at the possibilities of how AI impacts…
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So You Want to be a Tech Writer
Technical writing is the art of using words to communicate information about technology and engineering-related subjects. That’s a vast umbrella to worth and thrive under! Not everyone who does this kind of writing sees themselves as technical writers, even though they are. Engineers who document code or blueprints, UX designers who put together manuals, and…
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Writing to Someone Else’s Deadline
As a tech writer, writing to someone else’s deadlines can be challenging. It requires a great deal of focus, organization, and time management to meet the needs of your clients or team while also producing high-quality work. Let’s look at a few strategies to help you navigate this often-stressful situation. Understand the Importance of Deadlines…
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Overcoming Writer’s Block for Tech Writers
Tech writers often struggle with having too much to write about as opposed to too little. Our writer’s block comes from being overwhelmed with possibilities rather than a shortage of material. We have to make choices, and that’s not easy for tech writers, given how technology drives almost every aspect of society. Of course, when…
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Writing Speeches vs. Blogs
This week I’m working on something a little different. I will be speaking at a tech conference in May as a keynote speaker, which means I need to write a speech. It’s a different type of writing, similar to blogs, yet not intended to be archived as the written word. As it turns out, there’s…
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Tips for Combating Perfectionism
One of the biggest challenges writers face is the drive toward a “perfect” product. It’s a never-ending struggle to let a document go, given the concerns that it might not be enough, be too much, or push people away. People dealing with imposter syndrome often wrap perfectionism around their worries like thin gold plating over…
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Tips for Building an Engaging Writing Community
While writing is very much an “in your head” activity, writers benefit from having a community to hold them accountable, provide support, and challenge them to improve. Of course, first you have to find that community! There are options for finding the right community: find an existing one or build your own. What to Look…
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The Challenge of Tech Writing
Over the last week, I’ve had several conversations about the challenges involved in producing technical communications, aka tech writing. First, there was a great conversation as part of an “Ask Me Anything” session for The Writer’s Comfort Zone, where one of the participants described her struggle to write about a subject she felt passionately about…
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Creativity On Demand
Creativity on demand seems like an oxymoron. Creativity is spontaneous! Unpredictable! Wild! And yet authors around the world regularly bow down to deadlines, demands, and a need to be p. So how are we supposed to expect creativity to happen when requested? Fortunately, this is why we have … SCIENCE! Creative Problem Solving Scientists have…
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The Writing Process – Blogging
Getting started often seems to be one of the biggest blockers to writing (the other is actually finishing). I usually write 2-3 blog posts a week for myself and my clients, but it’s not like the idea springs forth fully formed and perfect! Here’s what my writing process looks like using last week’s blog post…
The Writer's Comfort Zone
A Community for Introverted Writers and Bloggers