Come on down: the musical

Do you think there are any legal (copyright, etc.) issues that would get in the way of a person (me, duh) writing a musical about The Price is Right?

Would you pay to go see it?

A good month

August is shaping up to be a good month for Written Expressions. It's only the 6th and I've already completed 3 projects. I'm starting another one tomorrow, and there are two more projects on the schedule for later this month.

Woohoo!!

And proving that anybody can benefit from the services of an editor . . .

Suspicious minds

As part of my perpetual search for work, I regularly scan Craigslist for potential projects. More often than not, the ads posted are for jobs that pay poorly (if they pay at all) or the posts are intentionally misleading. One that I saw today falls into the latter category:

ESSENTIAL DUTIES & RESPONSIBILITIES:

Concept & Content Strategy
- Work with business owner(s) and Director to conceptualize content that will advance the company's merchandising, business, marketing, or branding objectives.
- Has a deep and thorough understanding of those objectives, and can translate those into clear executable steps.
- Defines what information is needed for a successful customer experience.
- Collaborate with and set content direction for team and agencies.
- Develops standards and tone/voice for brands.
- Assess existing and proposed content.
- Coordinates content development; establishes efficient workflow processes.
- Highly aware of competitor best practices.

Writing and Editing
- Ensures that content is consistent and effective across all mediums/channels.
- Review agency and team efforts and provide effective direction and feedback.
- Work with functions across the company to ensure good communications and foster a collaborative work environment.
- Often looks for areas that need improvement, and is able to drive implementation of changes and solutions.
- Able to write hands-on as needed.

Two things excited me about this post: it was listed as being "part time" and the salary range was right up my alley. However, I was suspicious about the lack of detail related to what info was expected from the candidates who might be interested. Why would they post so much detail about the position, and then nothing about the qualifications of the applicants or what they should send to demonstrate their experience (resume, writing samples, etc)?

My curiosity got the best of me, so I replied. In my reply, I requested more information about the company and asked what information they wanted from interested applicants. I received this reply back almost instantaneously:

All applicants are required to post they [sic] resumes first.

http://www.postresumehere.com/hiring/writing.asp

If you have already done so then the available jobs are
located under the following Reference Codes:

Reference Code: 096772
Reference Code: 2568
Reference Code: SJC19605
Reference Code: 275501
Reference Code: 2877
Reference Code: NJ-2734
Reference Code: MD.0800835

From,
James

The fact that his reply came back faster than he could have typed it, coupled with the typo, the long list of position reference codes, and the requirement of posting a resume before getting more information about the position replaced my curiosity with suspicion. It's all just a little too "cloak-and-dagger" for my tastes, so I will not be pursuing this "opportunity".

Enough is enough

Sometimes, being anal is a blessing--but when it comes to knowing when a piece of work is finished, it's a definite curse.

Change a word here. And a word there. And there. Then change one back. Delete a sentence, then paste it back in. Tinker with paragraph order. Monkey with the leading. I could do it all day long, and it would likely drive me slowly insane.

So I force myself to stop, in spite of that little voice in my head that tells me one more change is going to make it SO much better. It's hard to do sometimes, but it's absolutely necessary--not only for my sanity, but also in order to meet deadlines.

I'm sure I'm not the only writer who doesn't know when to stop . . . so how do you deal with it?

Workin'

The creative staffing firm came through again . . . they called at 10:15 this morning and asked if I could meet with the client at 11. I quickly got myself together and headed out the door, and was back home and working on the project by 1.

Thought I'd take a moment to stretch, get some water, and write a (very) short post about it. Okay, back to work!