A place for discussion on poetry, reviews, contests, etc. |
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Like Dave, I’m a former technical writer. For around twenty years, I wrote and illustrated installation, user, and maintenance manuals, as well as online help, for a small networking company and a huge data storage equipment company. (Are you yawning yet?) I’d written a handful of short stories and poetry before those years, but none of it saw the light of day past my typewriter (remember those?) or word processor (ditto). The tech writing requirement for detailed and efficient writing, geared for an 8th or 9th grade reading level (for ease of use by the greatest number of users), left me starving for a creative outlet, so over the years I’ve written a lot more fiction, submitted several pieces to small-press publications, and saw three works published. One of them earned me ten dollars, one a free issue, and one nothing. (I even had to buy the issue to see my work in print.) WDC has been a terrific inspiration for me, and I thank Dave and all his cohorts for challenging my brain and keyboard. |