It’s with mixed emotions that I announce the end of my technical writing blogging days. You may have noticed that I haven’t blogged for a number of months now, so it’s become something of a self-deception to keep the site up.
But I may blog again next week … or next month …
So says the packrat of a blogger, keeping something around that I figure I may use again in the future.
A few days shy of a year ago, I was laid off from the job I’d had for over seven years. My gryphonmountain.net hosting plan was ending the next month, so I decided I’d start a new site that was more clearly related to tech writing. I figured it could help me land a job if a potential employer saw I was invested enough in the field to blog about it and show off my expertise.
And, after all, I’d have plenty of time for blogging because I didn’t have a full-time job. 
I had gone almost a year before that with hardly a post. After getting my new domain name and hosting, I posted a few times. I think of Liam Neeson’s character in the movie Batman Begins talking about how after the death of the Waynes, “Gotham City limped along ever since,” and that’s how I feel like my blog went. The layoff shocked a bit of life back into Gryphon Mountain as I revived it as Beyond Help, but just enough for it to stagger onward a few steps before flopping onto the sidewalk and letting out one last choking breath.
So I came to the decision to let Beyond Help go. In case you’re wondering, here’s why.
Reason #1: I’m Looking for a Career Change
One effect of being laid off is the asking of some serious questions. “What is it I want to do next? Is it time for something different?”
After applying for some tech writing positions and having some interviews, I thought and I prayed, and I decided I ought to go into IT business analysis. I did some of it in 2012 and again in 2013 for a group I was doing tech writing for; they had asked me to pick up some of their BA slack because through developing the documentation, I’d gathered a lot of domain knowledge.
I enjoyed the analysis. I enjoyed gathering information and turning that into information that developers and testers could use to build a product. I enjoyed having answers for team members. That happened some already because of the aforementioned domain knowledge, but now, team members had more reason to take advantage of that knowledge.
So in addition to enjoying gathering requirements and analyzing processes and technology, here are more reasons I want to make this switch (nothing like a list within a list!):
- I get to have a more direct impact on the product that’s developed. Tech writers aren’t often involved early, and their usability input isn’t taken seriously. As a business analyst, I have a much better chance to exercise some influence on the final product. And by coming from the tech writing field, I have that additional angle that I can look at the product from.
- IT business analysis has a higher pay ceiling than tech writing. Enough said.
- I’m somewhat tired of trying to justify tech writing and to feel like I’m a full team member when I’m not always considered to be such. It doesn’t take long for a business analyst to prove his or her worth, but it seems like no matter how many times a tech writer shows what he or she can do, a large share of the managers and development team members within tech organizations still don’t grasp it. (That said, I have to thank those I have worked with in the past and whom I currently work with who know the value of good documentation.) I don’t like my job function to be an afterthought—and as the business analyst, I can have some influence on how much influence the tech writer has and how early he or she gets involved.
Fortunately, I landed with a company (who contracted me out with the group I’d done analysis work with before) who is interested in helping me develop my business analysis skills. I’ve been doing a fair amount of it over the last six weeks, and I’m really enjoying it.
Reason #2: I Don’t Have Anything Else to Say
One of the reasons a large lapse occurred in my blogging the first time is that I had pretty much run out of steam. Yes, there’s still plenty of hot air, it just wasn’t escaping onto my blog.
While I was actively blogging from March 2008 until March 2012, I became convinced that a lot of improvement was needed in how documentation is delivered electronically. I posted such inflammatory ideas as Time for Online Help to Get a New Wardrobe and Why I Don’t Like Tri-pane Help. I wanted the companies who provide tools to tech writers to get with the program and leave the old stuff in the past.
I don’t know if I was heard, but that was the thing I wanted to see happen in tech writing as a field. And there’s only so many ways you can say it or so many times you can say it before people get tired of the same tune and change the station.
I’ve read the advice of other bloggers to recycle posts or revisit old topics, but that practice never really interested me. If I was going to post anything at all, I wanted it to be fresh.
Further, the fact that I had pretty much run out of insights about tech writing suggested to me that I’ve grown as far as I can in my present circumstances. This point is related to the previous one about switching to business analysis—I feel like the best and most interesting way for me to grow right now is in a different (though closely related) job function. I would have to go looking for a tech writing job in a pretty different environment to learn other things about tech writing, and that just doesn’t interest me at this time.
With my employer’s model of contracting software development resources out to their clients, the opportunity will probably come up again to do tech writing after I start doing business analysis full time. I may very well take such an opportunity to do some tech writing for a client and then switch back to business analysis. Having some versatility will help my employer find more places to put me over time. And my side job is a tech writing job, so it’s not as if I’m not leaving tech writing behind completely and forever.
I’m merely acknowledging that it’s time for something different, something where I feel like my contribution can be greater.
Reason #3: Blogging Fell to the Bottom of My List
Finally, I have so many things on my plate that blogging is a thing I’ve decided not to worry about and give any time to. Among being a husband and dad (with other family relationships), a homeowner, and having responsibilities in my local church congregation and a side job, I don’t have loads of time for recreation or even for creative writing. Blogging dropped way to the bottom of the priority list (as did Twitter), and there’s no point to paying money for a domain name and hosting plan that aren’t seeing any use. If I were to renew them, I have to be frank with myself—I would be throwing the money into a hole. So I’m walking away from that hole with the money still in my pocket.
The End of the End
So after four years of Gryphon Mountain and one year of Beyond Help, I say farewell to blog authorship and to my online lectern. On January 31, my hosting plan will expire, and Beyond Help will go quietly into the night. I don’t know if there’s a blogging future for me, but there’s something about having a website that’s alluring to me. I may turn up like a bad penny someday. But the site will have to be about something that really gets my passions going and drives me to blog long term.
I would have liked to do more interviews with Gryp. I would have liked to have done better with the Gryphon Mountain Tales and kept the stories going. But I don’t think I regret those things enough to keep this up.
Thanks to all my readers who stuck with me during the first major writing dearth and then again during the second one. I appreciate that you didn’t give up on my blog even though I gave up on it. I learned from your comments, and I enjoyed meeting some of you in person at STC or WritersUA conferences.
Thanks to the members of the User Education team at the LDS Church. I enjoyed working with you, associating with you, and learning from you.
Thanks to Tom Johnson, who back in 2008 suggested I had worthwhile things to say to the world about technical writing and should start blogging. And gave me a few free WordPress pointers here and there because he was doing it as a friend.
Last and most important, thanks to my wife and kids, whom I treasure, and to God, who gave me what talents and skills I have and led me into an industry that provides for my family. He has been good to us, and I look forward to what’s next.
—Ben
