I've done a little technical writing and know some people locally who make their living at it. They tell me it's an interesting market right now - on one hand, a trend is that some companies who had a tech writer on staff are seeing it as expendable and toasting the position (usually in belt-tightening, it's professional staff development, and staff training and documentation that are among the first areas to go), but on the other hand the software industry is reasonably active with a lot of specialty niche software in use in industries or new software (like ERP software) taking over to try and save the company money over the span of a few years compared to battling outdated software/hardware/processes. If you can do contract or even part-time/permanent work with a company where their technical culture is shifting radically and they recognize a need for guide documentation for it, it could be great! Just all depends on the company and where they're at.
There are books, yes, and associations, etc. as well. Wikipedia (of all places!) has a list of some here that might be helpful. You can see if someone locally at a software development firm or something along those lines could give you a few pointers, informal mentoring. Also, a couple of days ago I wrote in this comm as comments about getting started at freelancing, it'll be a little different for technical writing but you may be able to adapt some of those tips. Let us know how the search is going!
There are books, yes, and associations, etc. as well. Wikipedia (of all places!) has a list of some here that might be helpful. You can see if someone locally at a software development firm or something along those lines could give you a few pointers, informal mentoring. Also, a couple of days ago I wrote in this comm as comments about getting started at freelancing, it'll be a little different for technical writing but you may be able to adapt some of those tips. Let us know how the search is going!
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