Writing nooblet questions

July 7, 2010 12:50 PM

Three questions: How can a new person break into tech writing? How can I learn to write articles quickly as someone who's returning to writing after a long hiatus? And how legitimate are sites like freelancer.com, odesk.com, guru.com, etc? I'm avoiding places like Associated Content and its ilk.

I've been getting chummy with my local STC chapter, but so far no dice as far as entry level projects or jobs (doesn't help that I'm so strapped for cash I literally cannot afford to become an official member.) I don't have a portfolio for tech writing and am eager to get started so I can at least try to score a project or two. I figured in the meantime I could at least do some sort of freelance writing (not necessarily tech) to earn money on the side.

At the very least I signed up for freelancer.com, but I'm a bit confused by the whole process. Are there any red flags I should watch for before bidding on a project? If anyone has had experience with any of these sites, please MeMail me with advice or tips.

posted by Anima Mundi to writing & language (6 answers total)

What is your actual experience with technical writing? What is your technology background?

What type of "tech writing" are you looking to do? Articles for publications? Documentation for software?

What are your *writing* credentials?

All of this matters.

I would say "Find a startup where you really dig the technology and offer to do the tech writing for them for free, because they probably can't afford to hire anyone" but I don't know if you're even remotely qualified to do that.
posted by micawber at 1:00 PM on July 7, 2010 [2 favorites]

Find some open source projects that need better documentation and contribute.
posted by kindall at 1:29 PM on July 7, 2010 [1 favorite]

I'm not in tech writing, but I'm a freelance medical writer (and for 2 years before that I was employed at companies full-time as a medical writer).

I would highly, highly recommend that you apply for full-time jobs at companies that employ tech writers, preferably as, well, a tech writer. When I was workng at my last job as a medical writer, I had an opportunty to work on projects and acquire professsional samples - Believe me, I never would have obtained similar samples working as an independent freelancer or at any of the web sites you suggest (and as a result, I can sometimes land some very professional level contracts now as a freelancer). Other coworkers at that former company eventually moved on to other companies and hired me as their freelancer, so ultimately, this place of employment will be a place to network. Finally, you will get a lot of training at the place of employment, and be able to see how these projects should (and should not) be managed.

I do think your STC membership can be helpful because of work that you can acquire, which far outweighs the cost of membership (my American Medical Writing Association allows us to advertise on a web page- it is ~$75 (american dollars) to advertise for the year but the amount of work that I got back was a few hundredfold more) - also, wth my linkedin profile, I've gotten a lot of inquiries and work (and it is free!) - but I am positive that without those samples and even a 1-year history working at a reputable company, I would not have landed much work. I've also emailed companies directly to a) inquire if they work with freelancers and 2) introduce myself as a freelancer and tell them about my specialty writing x, y, and z -- I'm suggesting directly approaching companies because you can get hire rates and if they have a lot of work in the pipeline, continuous work over several months/years.

Also, for a little more information, have you seen this question and in particular, Muffin Man's responses? From his reply, it sounds like he has hired freelance technical writers through linkedin - so his responses may give you a bit more info or maybe you want to drop him a memail to see if you can find out what type of background he wants to see in the people that he hires?
posted by Wolfster at 1:59 PM on July 7, 2010 [2 favorites]

Do you have a blog? Start writing articles and use that as your portfolio.
posted by blue_beetle at 2:20 PM on July 7, 2010

Thanks, Wolfster. I have a Linkedin account and I've done judging for the STC competitions, for which I've gotten recommendations, but I still haven't managed to obtain work. My background is in libraries, and the only documentation I've written is a training guide for new employees.
posted by Anima Mundi at 5:45 PM on July 7, 2010

I've used freelancer.com once with no problem. You might also like textbroker.com.
posted by kylej at 8:26 PM on July 7, 2010