Ex-writer's lament

[Dan Rydell]

Same reason a dog licks his private parts: because it can.

Like I said on another thread, the average editor faced with this line of logic will toss a stack of resumes on his desk and say, "See that? Those are the other 100 people who applied for our last opening and I'm sure one of them would be happy to do your job at your present wage."

Yeah? That's what you bring here?

Who the **** are you? What do you bring to this business?

Go lick your own balls.

Sounds like you don't know how in hell to hire a good editor, or run a good newspaper.

**** off. Who the hell are you?

 

[Write-brained]

Anyone else tired of potentially positive threads turning to ****?

 

[sirvaliantbrown]

Same reason a dog licks his private parts: because it can.

Like I said on another thread, the average editor faced with this line of logic will toss a stack of resumes on his desk and say, "See that? Those are the other 100 people who applied for our last opening and I'm sure one of them would be happy to do your job at your present wage."

"Supply and demand," said Ricardo.

 

[wickedwritah]

Anyone else tired of potentially positive threads turning to ****?

A lot of times, they "turn to ****" because people whine about them and perpetuate the ****tage.

There's only been one asshole comment on this thread, and it came from Stone Cane.

ServeItUp's comment, sadly, was hammer-on-nail, even though we all wish it weren't.

Stop worrying about the threads "turning to ****," and they likely won't.

 

[Fenian_Bastard]

Was going through a box in my garage and stumbled across a mis-filed folder.

The folder was my clip file from 1987 and 1988, my first two full years in journalism. It was filled with stories about prep football and basketball, local recreation, softball and bowling.

Some of the stories were actually pretty good; a decent turn of phrase here, a nice lede there. There were also a few stories that would have been much better at 9 inches than the 21 at which they ran. I'm sure some of them were heavily edited. But I know others weren't, and I'm proud of that.

My 13-year-old daughter, who's a pretty decent writer herself, leafed through the yellowed clips. "Wow, Dad," she said. "You were pretty good."

I don't feel it betrays my masculinity at all to say a tear formed when she said that.

I'm a long way removed from my days as a sports writer. I'm in a non-journalism job making a lot more money. I travel a lot, I see the world, I have a pretty good time and am in a pretty good place in life.

But:

I'd love nothing more than to freeze my ass off in a Midwestern high school press box next Friday night. Watch a football game, talk to the guys after it's over, and write a little story about it. I didn't realize, until tonight, how much I miss that.

Yeah, pal, it's easy to be wistful when you're making "a lot more money."

If you miss it so much, turn your back on your huge salary and go cover high school football in a driving rainstorm for some 15,000 daily.

Otherwise, I don't want to hear your self-absorbed poetic ramblings.

I'm positive that the above is one of the worst exercises in douchehattery ever seen hereabouts.
Jesus wept.

 

[Write-brained]

Anyone else tired of potentially positive threads turning to ****?

A lot of times, they "turn to ****" because people whine about them and perpetuate the ****tage.

There's only been one asshole comment on this thread, and it came from Stone Cane.

ServeItUp's comment, sadly, was hammer-on-nail, even though we all wish it weren't.

Stop worrying about the threads "turning to ****," and they likely won't.

There's a vote for 'no'.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

I'll bet that when time rolls around to put that 13-year-old through college you won't be so sorry you ditched journalism...

You can do both... Press boxes are filled with people who have full-time jobs during the week, but like to freelance on the side just for fun and a few extra bucks...

 

[mike311gd]

I'm sure almost all of us will be stringers after we retire. There will always be a need for someone to pick up an extra $30-50 every Friday night during the fall. You've still got plenty of time.

 

[FileNotFound]

I'm sure almost all of us will be stringers after we retire. There will always be a need for someone to pick up an extra $30-50 every Friday night during the fall. You've still got plenty of time.

I've had that thought, actually, now that my travel schedule is slowing down a bit. Of course, I'd insist on using a TRS-80 to file my stories.

(Edited to add blue font. :-) )

 

[mike311gd]

I'm sure almost all of us will be stringers after we retire. There will always be a need for someone to pick up an extra $30-50 every Friday night during the fall. You've still got plenty of time.

I've had that thought, actually, now that my travel schedule is slowing down a bit. Of course, I'd insist on using a TRS-80 to file my stories.

Well ... uh, will it even turn on?

That'd be such a great prerequisite for accepting a job: "Sure, $45 sounds great, but I have one question: Can I submit my article on the oldest piece of **** imaginable? No? Well, good day, sir."

 

[Fenian_Bastard]

I'm sure almost all of us will be stringers after we retire. There will always be a need for someone to pick up an extra $30-50 every Friday night during the fall. You've still got plenty of time.

I've had that thought, actually, now that my travel schedule is slowing down a bit. Of course, I'd insist on using a TRS-80 to file my stories.

(Edited to add blue font. :-) )

Screw the stringing.
Sell the Trash 80 to a museum and retire.
Now where's my PortaBubble?

 

[Mayfly]

My 13-year-old daughter, who's a pretty decent writer herself, leafed through the yellowed clips. "Wow, Dad," she said. "You were pretty good."

This is what is driving me to write better each and every day I am in the business. Not your daughter telling me that I am good writer, but even though I am a "youngster", every shop I have gone to, one of the first things each editor told me when I turned in my first story for them was that I had natural talent and they enjoyed reading my stuff. You gotta find that one thing that drives you or make you want to write. And in your case, FNF, that makes you happy when you reminisce about it.

 

[wickedwritah]

Anyone else tired of potentially positive threads turning to ****?

A lot of times, they "turn to ****" because people whine about them and perpetuate the ****tage.

There's only been one asshole comment on this thread, and it came from Stone Cane.

ServeItUp's comment, sadly, was hammer-on-nail, even though we all wish it weren't.

Stop worrying about the threads "turning to ****," and they likely won't.

There's a vote for 'no'.

W_B, I like you a lot, but you always are one of the first ones out there to say "oh, this will not end well," or something of the sort.

If it's off-track, why not try to get it back on track, instead of whining "this will not end well"?

 

[Write-brained]

Anyone else tired of potentially positive threads turning to ****?

A lot of times, they "turn to ****" because people whine about them and perpetuate the ****tage.

There's only been one asshole comment on this thread, and it came from Stone Cane.

ServeItUp's comment, sadly, was hammer-on-nail, even though we all wish it weren't.

Stop worrying about the threads "turning to ****," and they likely won't.

There's a vote for 'no'.

W_B, I like you a lot, but you always are one of the first ones out there to say "oh, this will not end well," or something of the sort.

If it's off-track, why not try to get it back on track, instead of whining "this will not end well"?

I have 4,960 posts and only ONCE have I ever used the "this will not end well" line or something like it and that was a joke about five months ago.

What's funny is I could have told Stone Cane, "**** you" over and over and over again as others did and you wouldn't have said anything. Call for some decorum and you jump on me. I don't see how that got this thread back on track. But I don't care. Keep it to yourself.