The top ten lies of writers
I wrote before about the top ten lies of PR companies and Guy Kawasaki has done a couple of excellent pieces about VC lies and entrepreneur lies. In the same spirit, here are the top ten lies of writers:
- It’ll be done by the weekend.
- It’s the next thing on my to do list.
- I’ve never missed a deadline (actually this is true for me but only if you allow me the deadlines that I rescheduled and a couple that I got wrong by a day or so in my to-do list).
- No problem. It’s easy.
- I’m happy to do the rewrite.
- Of course, it’s off the record. (See my previous post on this subject.)
- Your brief is fine.
- It’ll take two days (when it might take one or ten!). Not so much a problem for me as I tend to charge by the word rather than time allegedly spent on the project.
- My workload’s pretty light at the moment - I’ve got plenty of time.
- Yes, I can easily incorporate your PR company / marketing manager / product manager’s “improvements” into the text.
Check out my company’s guide to working with writers.
scott wrote:
I’m happy to say I’ve heard very few of those from you.
BTW, how’s it coming?
Posted on 29-Sep-06 at 3:15 pm | Permalink
Liz Strauss wrote:
Might I add: Yes, what you’re asking for makes total sense.
Posted on 30-Sep-06 at 4:00 am | Permalink
Damon Zahariades wrote:
I do most of my writing for myself. That is, I write for my own business as opposed to writing for clients.
And I’m sad to say that I’ve said most of those lies at some point.
The first two in your list, each week.
Oh, and I think I’ve even lied by saying Liz’s once or twice.
Posted on 03-Oct-06 at 12:45 am | Permalink