Re: TW impaired CW?

[Sella Rush <sellar -at- APPTECHSYS -dot- COM>]

I remember a thread a couple of years ago when I blithely claimed to be able
to balance my tech writing with my novel writing.  If I remember right, my
idea was to counter balance writing with editing; if I'd spent the day
nitpicking at work, I'd go home and let loose on the novel, and vice versa.
It still sounds like a good idea.  Maybe someone more disciplined than me
can pull it off.

I'm not sure if it's good or bad, but tech writing has made me much more
sensitive to the accuracy of my creative writing.  This may include details,
such as a section where I describe a clear warm evening and then mention the
water reflecting some high clouds.  Maybe in the past I would have let that
go, but not now.  It also might include larger issues, such as character
motivation.  All of this attention to detail is almost certainly resulting
in better writing, but I sure didn't appreciate it when I spent months
rewriting and obsessing over my first chapter.

On the other hand, there's been a distinctly positive result.  In my case,
I'm including some elements of technology in my novel, and I've been very
successful at writing sections that convey the right amount of information
and the right tone without boring everyone (at least my critique group) to
death.

I think the most lethal impact has been that its just plain hard to sit down
and write in the evenings after writing all day.

Sella Rush
mailto:sellar -at- apptechsys -dot- com
Applied Technical Systems (ATS)
Bremerton, Washington
Developers of the CCM Database

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