Another hole?

Tech writers do not hold copyright to the documentation they produce for corporations. Writers can be proud of their work but not attached. To a degree, the same is true for an author producing a piece of fiction. The story is more important than the author. Authors have been told to kill their darlings because these are little side stories, embellishments that add little to the narrative. Readers trip over these like jutting roots of trees across a worn path. Readers are caught up in the story, looking up and around, not down at the path. Trip, tumble, and they've left that imaginative realm. The book closes shut.

Writing for so many years has taught me how to separate from the final product, the final manuscript. When you're working for a start-up company though, you're documenting someone else's creation and creators can be very attached to their products.

Some days, it's very hard to convince owners that their product needs more information associated with it. Strangely, basic documentation like a glossary can be met with unusual resistance. As a tech writer, you're thinking of the customer, wanting to make sure she doesn't trip, or worse, fall down some hole (missing information).

The resistance can last months. Now to an author and writer, this can seem absurd, but to a creative person, it's easy to recognize that attachment. You created the work, only you know what it needs. But the work must stand on its own. No one will be around to explain, except for the documentation.