I certainly never saw technical writing as you put it! *S*
The very first time I wrote a software help, it was for an encyclopaedia. I had been working in part of the process (basically writing and editing articles, and choosing images, etc.), but I could not "see" all the functions and how it worked really. I wrote my text by layers, by small approaches, talking and talking again with my co-workers for trying to advance a bit more. Gosh, that first time was hard. Perhaps the fact that myself, as a user, I try to don't make use of "help" and find it boring... doesn't help... *S*


My computer engineer's co-workers always say that the easy part is to create a tool, the hardest part is to write how to use it.