Word Mercenary for Hire

A friend has dubbed me Word Mercenary for Hire and I like it. It makes me sound like a super hero or Rambo or something. Now instead of sitting in front of my computer idly stringing words together like pretty beads, I attack them and beat them into submission until they are absolutely perfect.

I am a Word Mercenary... and I like it.

A Bad Experience/A Learning Experience

I recently took a job that seemed like a good fit for me. I won't get into specifics, but it was writing a self-help book about relationships. The client was aware of my background and was enthusiastic about an article I had written for him on the subject. The style was to be fun and flirty. I was enthusiastic. The client seemed nice and he welcomed me to his team, saying he would have many projects for me. We spoke a few times via skype and came to an agreement.

I sent my proposed table of contents and that's when I should have been suspicious. He wanted to make sure I didn't waste time on the "romantic" aspects of rekindling relationships. I was to stress the physical. Hmmm....

The next week, I sent what I had written so far and was told to back off of the basics and get to the descriptions of what a man could do for a woman. I started to worry.

The next week he sent me the proposed title. I will not enter it here for the same reasons I am keeping details vague. I am covering my butt. The title and subtitle were pornographic and suggested force and sexual aggression. I was appalled. 

I didn't sleep for two nights. I knew I could not write what he wanted in good conscience. I could not compromise my integrity. I was afraid that he might try to hurt my reputation if I backed out. Finally, I decided to refund the payments he had made and retain the rights to my content. He asked me to reconsider, saying that I could continue along the lines I wanted, but I did not feel I could trust him. 

I lost a good amount of time and money on that project, but I learned some valuable lessons. I cannot compromise my integrity for any amount of money. I cannot write content that will potentially hurt or lead to the mistreatment of others. I have friends and family who will support me through my struggles, no matter what. If I have any concerns, I will ensure that all client interactions are in writing. If it seems hinky, it probably is.

I am not a Facebook Whore. Are You?

This will likely offend people. Proceed at your own risk. I'm not going to mess around and rant about the evils of Facebook and your privacy being violated. That's all been done to death. I'm going to talk about Facebook Whores. We all know them. They are the folks who are using Facebook as both a personal communication tool as well as for self-promotion.

Some have two Facebook pages: one for "fans" or whatever they call it now when you "like" somebody and one regular page that is supposed to be for connecting with people. Many only have one page and they just multi-task on it. No biggie. Not my business, right? Right.

But am I the only one who furrows my eyebrows at people with over 1,000 friends? C'mon... You must be a Facebook Whore. At first, I felt inferior with my paltry 75 friends. Then I looked through them. All 75 have some meaning to me. Many of them are my creepy Internet friends - my best friends in the world. And you know what? I ignore friend requests from people I don't know. *pauses to acknowledge gasps of horror*

Yup, I don't really want to wade through anyone's status updates if I don't find them interesting. Seriously. In fact, I had almost 80 friends, but went through and dropped a few because I realized that they were people I accepted before I knew any better.

So... before you get all angry and tell me I'm an idiot and all of your 2,368 friends are honest-to-goodness pals and that I suck because I have less than 100 friends... take a deep breath. It's none of my business what you do with your account. Friend everyone. Go for it. I don't really care. But I reserve the right to roll my eyes and smirk when I look at the number of "friends" you have.