After almost three years spent
in the sunny – or so everybody says – California, I have finally reached a new awareness:
I am gifted with the talent of writing! After all, in 2 years I have published
as many as 9 posts in two different, but equally unsuccessful, blogs, wrote 4
short stories no one published and monthly kept up to date my Facebook page… what about that? So the
time has come for the next step: I will make writing my job! Or possible job.
Or something somehow related to my job….
Enthusiastically naive, I start applying, and applying again, and again,
until, one fine day, unexpectedly, I get an offer: a marketing agency is interested
in contracting me as their web content
writer for one of their clients. A small project but long term: the perfect
start into the field. I am absolutely ecstatic: finally something good coming!
They want a sample of my creative writing skills: I need to write a profile for
a girl to post on a dating website. I must admit it does not really sound
exciting, but hey, I can pay my dues, and then move on. So I spend almost an
hour to produce 100 words.
Once I have sent my sample, I start waiting. What if they don’t like my
writing? Or don’t appreciate my humor? What if
there’s any tipo? Or if I
got the overall tone wrong? After three long excruciating days of doubts, I finally
get an answer. They like it! They Do! They are offering me the contract! The email
with the details is so long, and I am so super excited that I just give it a
quick look. I know the conditions already, and the pay. I can work from home.
This all sounds so perfect. I cannot believe how lucky I was! Until a sentence
in the last paragraph catches my eye: there might be explicit material. Huh? I might want to talk about it with my husband first. So I forward him the email. A few seconds pass,
when he answers, Have you read this
email?? Well, honestly, I haven’t… I have just skipped through it… I’d
better read it then. It is in the very first lines that the agency lets me
know I will be working for an adult-content website. Ooohhhh! But, but… No, no, no! Uff….
Still trying to fix my vanity, I sit down in
front of the computer and start typing, Dear Margaret, I
thank you very much for you offer but ... Looks like my shining future as a
writer still needs to wait. One thing is sure, though: from now on I will be
reading my work emails from the first word to the last.
