Saturday, August 16, 2014

Writing Beliefs

My friend asked me why I don't try to get a job at the local newspaper. Obviously that kind of work would be more regular. However, I informed her that I don't have the myopic, cookie cutter views of our local paper. I think I would be instantly turned away, and if I were not, I would certainly be fired once I refuse to write articles that agreed with the limited views of the paper.

With freelancing I try to only take jobs that go along with what I believe. I don't write bologna. Yes, when I am desperate, I do take some copy writing jobs. (Copy writing is writing advertising copy - not to be confused with copy righting, which is registering your work with the government, or copy editing, which is just a fancy way of asking for line editing).

Now, I do research on the products I am writing about, I would refuse a job if it were truly selling something under the bridge, but there is always that edge of the playground tinge to the products. Do I truly believe one cream or one pill is going to keep me from showing signs of aging? That's a tough question. I certainly would like to believe it. I admit that I did go out and purchase facial care products after one round of beauty cream ad writing. But I didn't purchase their particular brand of aging cream because I didn't think looking younger was worth that price.

Needless to say, the two anti-aging creams I tried both turned my face more red than anything else, but I still use them occasionally - one of them did get rid of my acne (which was not an advertised benefit), but it made me smell like an old lady because it had so much fragrance in it.

My latest advertising job came by mistake. I was in one of those slight slumps where no one was hiring me, so I began to scrounge around the edges of the jobs I will accept. I didn't get hired and went on to take other jobs. Well, needless to say, two other freelancers did not finish the job in a timely manner. The guy asked if I would still be interested and I accepted.

This guy truly seems to believe in his product, and that is always something that encourages me. If the people making it believe in it, it must at least have some sort of positive placebo effect (at least that is what I reason). It was above board for the most part, I think one of the celebrities backing these types of products is a charlatan, but the product itself has the potential of improving the health of those taking it in some ways, at least.

There are some freelancers out there who are salesmen. They can sell themselves and they can sell any product, whether they believe in it or not. I am not a salesman, but I can at least write Infomercial style ads for products I somewhat believe in. I sometimes even find it fun. This particular job was not fun. It was tedious, but I finished it and hopefully can leave sales jobs to real salesmen for a long while.

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