skills of a technical writer
Many think language skills are important, they are, but more than that communication skills are important.
because you need to understand a complex subject or topic and explain to the intended audience in a simple way.
for example if you write a book for a five year old, but you use a very heavy vocabulary then they cannot understand. likewise if you write a simple user manual for a very technical guy he will feel insulted.
so it is very important to understand for whom you are writing.
interview skills: in your job you will be doing a lot of interviewing; the project manager, the project team, developers..
you need to elicit information.
Technology aptitude
if you are planning for technical writing, then you need to have the aptitude to learn new technology. not every time you will be given the opportunity to write in the domain that you are aware of.
in future, will share inputs on how to prepare for freelance projects and jobs in content writing.