Validated

I think there comes a time in our lives when we question our purpose or if we're even on the right path.

I became a writer because my mommy told me to. Well, partly.

Writing always came easily to me, I suppose. I was the student who preferred essay tsets to multiple choice and writing lengthy papers to studying.

As a senior in high school, I informed my mother that I would be majoring in International Business, envisioning myself in Anne Taylor suits and Manolo pumps zipping from one country to another, and she could not hide her surprise. My math skills are less than stellar and in a moment of tough love she flat out told me it would not be a good fit.

I retorted that if that was the case, then SHE needed to tell ME what to study. She suggsted Professional Writing. I said, "what is professional writing and why would I want to do that?"

Long story short, she was able to convince me so I signed up.

As you'd expect I took several writing classes early on in my college career, but when I entered Dr. Barta-Smith's technical writing course, I fell in love. Our first in-class assignment was to  write instructions on how to tie a shoe. I finished quickly, and smugly sat back in my chair thinking about how I was going to sail through this class. Then my professor asked to see my directions and pointed out the various steps that were missing. I was shocked, but it was in the re-writing of those simple instructions that I found my niche.

I was going to be a technical writer.

What I quickly realized upon graduation is that no one wants to hire a writer without experience so I took the first gainful position with benefits that came along and ended up as an administrative assistant. I was fortunate that my supervisor took full advantage of my degree in writing and I started building my resume.

My next position was as a quality coordinator for Joy Mining Machinery. This job involved writing work instructions and procedures, as well as other documents. Still, with the hope of finding a true technical writing position, I soldiered on looking for the job description with my name on it.

After four years of building my resume, I saw a posting on monster.com that fit the bill. I applied, interviewed, and was hired. Nearly nine year later I am still with that company and developed my position into one that I love. I currently write user instructions, maintenance manuals, parts lists, and other customer-facing documents for MSA.

Afraid I was pigeon-holing myself into technical writing, I decided to pursue the masters program through Chatham to gain experience with web content development, and to reacquaint myself with other genres of writing. I have done well in all of my classes, but I know for certain that technical writing is where I belong.

Well, it is where I belong if I want a steady income and food on my table.

That said, writing is not just a career for me anymore. It is a hobby. I have accepted that this is a gift, and one I should develop.

I have always been an avid reader, but I have taken it up a notch recently. I now keep a reading journal, online of course. I review each book I read, rate it, and tag it creating a word cloud for easy reference. I even have a few followers.

I also find myself reading differently than I have in the past. As a kid I devoured books by the day. I won reading contests, librarians knew me by name, and I was a big fan of the "Book It" program through Pizza Hut.

However, as an adult, I find myself studying the way an author constructed a sentence or described a particular scene, or detail. I consider why one word or phrase was selected over another. I think about about another way something could have been written that might have made the meaning a little more clear. When I sit down to read now I am actively reading, not just seeing words and turning pages. I study authors and their writing styles.

And it is paying off.

My current professor, a PhD and a published author, had these words to say:

Dana, you're definitely in the right field: You have a great talent and sensitivity as a writer who is able to draw upon her past experiences to enrich her work. I look forward to reading more of your work in the weeks to come!

and. . .


You have a gift with words. And you certainly have a lot of experiences and insights to share.

New York Times Bestseller List, here I come. . .someday.