The White Rabbit of Highly Technical Writing

"The tech writer was not a bit hurt, and she jumped up on her feet in moment: she looked up, but it was still dark in her cubicle; before her was another long passage, and the White Rabbit as still in sight, hurrying down it. There was not a moment to be lost: away went the tech writer like the wind, and was just in time to hear the White Rabbit say, as he turned the corner, "Oh my ears and whiskers, how late it's getting!"

In a highly technical environment (with an art history background -- oh my brain!) understanding how the Master product works can be like chasing the White Rabbit. First you're surprised by the rabbit. (Really, a rabbit can do that? Is that useful?) And then you get used to the idea. (White Rabbit, okay.) And when you're ready to understand the rabbit, the rabbit bounds down the hole and so begins the chase. You feel you never grasp the information because you're not an engineer or a computer scientist or even a mathematician. But it's too late, you've tumbled down the the hole.

Welcome to the wonderland of API docs. It's not about simple GUI procedures.
1. From the Grand Duchess menu, select Off-with-her-head.

Your topics can be about multi-core processors, various optimizations, the Kaczmarz method, a simple iterative algebraic reconstruction algorithm. (My recent course in game mathematics has been invaluable.) So you then take an Intro C++ course and install Visual C++ 2005 Express Edition and write your first little program and no, it's not “Hello World” because you are a tech writer, it's "Woe Is I."

You try to apply how you study art and literature to understanding technology. You apply how you create your own work (fiction) and essays. You apply your own understanding of Waiting For Godot – your favorite play. You try the magazine writing approach of who when why what where. But with API, these are always surface questions, and the developer tells you something else that is important for the user to know. And then it's back to the audience. My audience needs more details! You think today you've got the White Rabbit by the tail, but he turns down another tunnel, you're bumping behind, having to let go because you're smaller now – you took that pill (Intro C++) and the White Rabbit is stronger than you.
(Just ask Alice.)