Annya's Enchanted Realities

I don’t believe many of you know this, but I work for a software company based out in the US. It has a SaaS product and most of the business we get through the contents we create-specifically technical blogs. I am writing this piece to share and chronicle the memory, or should I say the fall and rise of me as a content writer. Without further adieu, let me get into the details for you. 

Wearing Many Hats at Work

As you would have guessed by now, content writing is just one of the hats I wear in the organization. I would not completely call myself a content writer for the organization yet, but I think I might be getting there. I do manage content marketing, which includes coordinating with content writers and the publishing team to ensure contents are created and delivered on time. 

But I am more than just a content marketer. I also manage bi-monthly webinar events. From organizing to posting webinar activities, I take care of it. I am also helping with product sales and also a little bit of the favorite HR of the organization (Hope they agree). Anyways, I enjoy almost everything except for the sales part. But girl’s gotta earn people! 

First Experience with Technical Content Writing

I usually write HR related blogs: let’s say we go to a retreat or host any event or games, then I write those as blogs and publish them. But last weekend, I received an email from my boss suggesting that I can take a shot at writing technical content. I had just organized a webinar about that topic and the title sounded kind of like ‘this vs that’, I thought I’d give it a try. The next morning, I sat down with my laptop in my living room set up right in front of me and on TV, I put on some English album music, and cracked my fingers and started typing. 

In three hours I was able to create the content and I shared the document worried and pensive with my boss. After several hours, I heard my email notification on the phone and I looked at it. It was indeed from my boss. He actually liked the write up and had sent some positive notes. Not just that, I also got an incentive for writing technical content. I was over the moon. It was my first win as a technical content writer. 

When My Writing Was Called Garbage

The weekend finally ended on a sweet note, and then it was Monday. Another week, only with a little bit of more confidence, or so I thought. My boss emailed me on Tuesday that he needed me to rewrite one of the articles he had written. Because of the recent win, and the cockiness… I mean the confidence, I said I will get it done and I redid it. The next day, during our status call meeting, he asked me to stay back to review the content. He was furious about what I had done to his blog. 

He said I had changed the basic essence of the article and even called it ‘garbage’. I was absolutely devastated by those words. He said that I was not good at it. But I couldn’t get past the word, ‘garbage’. So I pleaded with him and got a second chance. 

Second Day. Second Chance. A Writer’s Redemption.

The next day, I started my day with only one goal in mind. ‘I am going to give it all’, ‘My writing is not garbage’, so many thoughts in my mind. As I told you our company thrives on technical contents. Especially when we deal with developers, and SRE engineers, one thing is pretty obvious-it involves coding. He had used a lot of code as examples throughout the blog and a lot of technical jargons going around. I worked three hours straight to rewrite the content. Before I sent it, I said to myself, ‘This is your make or break moment. If you fail this time, you will only stick to your guns’. I gathered all the strength within and sent the document and sent a calendar invite for the evening to review the content. 

When I Got Feedback That Changed Everything

It was time to take the call. I was eager and kind of in a panic mode. I joined the call even before time scheduled time, and I had been waiting for him to join for like 5 minutes and let me tell you-they were like 5 long hours. I was running multiple scenarios about how the book would be thrown back at my face, or my writing be called garbage over and over again. None of the scenarios had any positive thoughts or output. And it was at that moment, he joined the call. 

I slowly asked him if I could share the link to the document. He started sharing the screen on Zoom and we were both reviewing my work together. I was holding my breath and every time his cursor moved around my heart jumped a beat, maybe even a couple. And there was this one section where I had to re-write the explanation given to one of the sample codes. When he went back to the original document, copied that section and pasted it right below the rewritten explanation, I thought I had screwed up again. 

What I Learned About Writing, and Myself

Then he deleted what he had just copy-pasted, and said, ‘Annya this is good’. It was at that moment I started to breathe again. I could feel that my face was all of a sudden boiling and my eyes were tearing up. Nothing he said after that was processed. I started fanning myself with my hands and said, ‘Ram, I am tearing up. I don’t know why.’ I felt really emotional at that moment. Imagine that Miss Universe or Miss World has just won the crown, but only, it is me that is being crowned. It was literally an award winning moment for me… I used to mock those poses those women give when they are announced the winner, but now I really know how they felt. 

So that being said, this is the experience I wanted to share with you all before I wrapped up for the day. Writing this blog wasn’t just about the content—it was about me processing something deeply personal.

From being called “garbage” to hearing the words “this is good,” I went through a wave of emotions I never expected from a rewrite. But maybe that’s what writing does—it pulls you apart and puts you back together, one word at a time.

If you’ve ever had a redemption moment—at work, in life, or even in your own head—I’d love to hear it. Because today? Today was mine.