I straddle the tech/art gap as a tech artist in 3D VFX & Animation. I've done work as visual as branding and identity, and as technical as network performance a

I straddle the tech/art gap as a tech artist in 3D VFX & Animation. I've done work as visual as branding and identity, and as technical as network performance and a back-end web development. I'm also a technical writer for a commercial rendering engine, which is pretty different, but I've some experience reading and writing about these things. Technical folks often approach process write-ups as they would an incident report, or a tutorial. Rarely a pleasant read! A little prep before you start yields major improvement: First, decide exactly what you're saying, and to whom. For a big one, having a "story" part, a prosaic technical write-up, and a reference section can fit multiple people's needs. Then, consider exactly what your audience wants and needs to know about your message: try not to be overly broad. Make that into a simple narrative and story arc, and expand it into an outline. It sounds like boilerplate, but it's more like scaffolding. Correctly applied, it steers you towards a concise, compelling piece without endless dickering and waffling about what to say next. Start with the broadest, least specialized audience-- adding details is easier than editing them out.