Introduction
My path into technical writing follows a slightly unusual route: I used to be a film editor. When I first moved to Norway from London, I assumed finding editing projects would be near impossible because I couldn’t speak or understand Norwegian. So as I slowly began learning the language, I supplemented what editing work I could find with lecturing and film workshops, where I delved deeper into film theory, history, and editing. The combination of film and TV industry experience, teaching background, and being a native English speaker eventually led me to this role.
In the four years I have been in this position, I have realized there are striking similarities between film editing and documentation writing. Here are three quick insights.
Structure
Film editors work with structure. We take hours and hours of raw footage and build something coherent out of it.
You put everything down on a timeline, and the first assembly of your film or TV episode might end up being several hours long. Then, you start to trim.It is much like the first draft of a documentation article.
A quick tip! Editors often say, “When in doubt, take it out”—a rule that has served me just as well when writing. When you’ve been working and reworking the same scene for days, and no matter what you do, it just isn’t working.
TV series, theatre, and books all share a common framework: they have a beginning, a middle, and an end – a surprisingly difficult rule to break.
The beginning of a film sets the scene and establishes the core challenge—the problem the protagonist is trying to solve. Sound familiar? The middle moves us through a series of obstacles and introduces supporting characters to help reach the goal. But the ending… the ending of a film cannot be ambiguous. You cannot leave the audience walking out of the cinema with unanswered questions. That is frustrating. That is bad storytelling. And it’s bad documentation.
Insights
As an editor, the first time you see footage from a film is the only time you will ever see it objectively. It’s the only moment you share the exact same sensation as an audience member watching it for the first time. It is crucial that the first time you watch the rushes (raw footage), you write down anything that jumps out at you—emotions, moments that make you laugh or pause, or even a subtle look from an actor. As editing progresses and you review the footage repeatedly, it loses its initial impact. Recording those first reactions is vital.
This translates directly to writing documentation. During product meetings, demos and chats with support, you make notes on what stands out right away. Observe people’s reactions when features are discussed or demoed. But you rely on your own experience and instincts to tell you what is important to note because you you have the reader in mind. You know the audience.
Relationships
In film and television, the director-editor relationship is sometimes compared to a marriage. Many directors collaborate with the same editor throughout their entire careers. For example, Thelma Schoonmaker has edited almost every Martin Scorsese film. Steven Spielberg has a similar long-term partnership with his editor Michael Kahn.
Building that same level of trust with your Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) is key to successful documentation. Most of us already know the go-to people we can reach out to for guidance. The better the relationship, the more value you extract from it.
The Invisible Art
I will finish with visibility. I wonder how many people here have watched a film and actively paid close attention to the editing. Editing sometimes feels like one of the most thankless roles in filmmaking, because it is successful only when the audience doesn’t notice your work. Editing is most successful… when the audience appreciates a smooth, natural flow but not necessarily how it was put together. Documentation writing can feel the same.
Top tip: Watch a few minutes of any film or TV episode, with the sound turned off. That’s one of the best ways to really notice the editing.
Check out my lightning talk at Write the Docs 2026, where I presented these ideas.