Welcome

Welcome to techwriterly.com, the personal website of Katy Heider, a Technical Content Manager in the Chicago area. The site features a technical writing blog and various projects related to technical communications (all coming soon).

A Work in Progress

June 1, 2025 — Over the past several years, I’ve tried—and failed—to launch this site more times than I can count. I could list all the reasons "life got in the way," but the truth is, life gets in the way for everyone. And yet, other creators still manage to show up and publish. Why is that? I think the key difference is passion—passion for the subject matter, and passion for the creative process itself.

For me, when it comes to tech comm, that passion is absolutely there. I love what I do. So why has it been so hard to get this site off the ground?

I’ve experimented with WordPress and static site generators for years, but they never quite felt like *me*. As easy as it is to use an out-of-the-box template, I would much rather do it all myself. I started my career hand-coding simple websites—and that is where my passion truly lies.

So, I’ve gone back to the drawing board. Recently I took a trip down memory lane, back to the late ’90s and early 2000s, revisiting the kind of websites I used to love building. I’m drawing inspiration from that era and using it as a cornerstone for this site.

I'm building much of the site from scratch, so things will be in flux around here for a bit. Once the blog is up and running, I'll post about changes and developments as I go along. Please check back periodically if you're interested.