Dick Kronick is a writer, editor, and musician who lives in Minneapolis and regularly contributes to a Society for Technical Communication Consulting and Independent Contracting discussion forum in which I participate. There was a conversation recently about the difficulty some technical writers, especially consultants and independent contractors, are having finding work in the current economic environment. Someone asked about the viability of turning toward instructional design (ID) as a solution. Dick was compelled to write the following, which I found so motivational I asked for permission to reprint it here:
I guess I’ll run the risk of looking like a guy who’s just stroking his ego with this: I think the answer for everyone who’s struggling to find work is to diversify — and not just toward instructional design, which might be difficult since that field has become highly professionalized in the last couple of decades. You’ll be competing with people with one or two degrees plus experience in ID.
But there’s so much more out there! I have been a full-time freelance since 1985. For the first few years, I did mostly user documentation through job shops. I still do the occasional user manual, but I figured from the beginning that broadening my horizons would be the key to financial success and happiness. So, with just a plain-old vanilla B.A. in English I boot-strapped myself into other fields and genres.
Because I have a strong interest in architecture and engineering, I showed my early tech writing stuff to architecture and engineering companies. For them, I’ve written reports, proposals, white papers, web pages, brochures, newsletters, project descriptions, competition entries, and one book.
With nothing more in my portfolio than a couple of sophomoric music reviews written for college newspapers, I boot-strapped myself into magazine writing and have published more than 100 articles about architecture and engineering. And the articles look great in the portfolio when I’m trying to convince architects and engineers to hire me.
With just two art history courses in college, I’ve educated myself in architectural history by reading tons of books and attending lectures and conferences. I’ve established a pretty solid reputation in that field, which I turn into cash by being a historical consultant to architects and by organizing, advertising, and leading tours of historic architecture.
With a life-long interest in education, a previous writing job at a public agency that helps schools develop gifted education, and a couple of night school courses from a local university’s gifted ed program, I bootstrapped myself into instructional design — and have written plans, workbooks, and other training materials.
Because I’ve always thought visually, I figured I could write for video. So I whipped up a couple of fake video scripts and showed them to video production companies. It took a while to crack into that field, but I’ve now written scripts for more than 50 training or marketing videos.
When an opportunity to do stand-up tech writing seminars appeared, I grabbed it; now I’ve taught more than 1,000 business writing and technical writing seminars.
OK, I’ll stop with the self-aggrandizement!
The point is that you can stay busy if you realize that there are many genres of communication for which no formal credentials have been defined. All you need are some self-confidence and a free spirit — and you already have these or you wouldn’t be self-employed. So use your gifts. Find people who need good communication but can’t do it themselves; use your portfolio to show them you can do it for them.
Dick is a member of the Society for Technical Communication, and a member and past president of the Minnesota Chapter of the Society of Architectural Historians. You can read more about him and his projects on his website, http://www.richardlkronick.com.
