If you do the best you can,
nothing else matters worth a damn.
Tuesday, September 04, 2012
Road Not Taken
Got a call from my agent today; somebody looking for a ghostwriter. I listened to the pitch and decided to pass on it. The money sounded good, but the scope of the project and the interaction with the client weren't going to be my cup of tea. There was a time when I'd have been all over it, but that's the key word these days, "time." I don't have so much of it left that I want to do stuff just for the money. Always makes me a little uneasy when I turn away work; but the advantage of having gone down so many roads is that you come to realize which ones you don't want to go down again ...
There's a phrase I used to hear in Hollywood: Life is too short to work with assholes.
More often than not, you can't avoid this, it's the nature of things; if you can? Do ...
I don't know for sure that would have been the case in this instance, but there were some warning signs I have seen before, and I decided not to ignore them; If It walks, quacks, and acts like a duck ... ?
Among the definitions of "hack," are those that refer to a taxicab, and by extension, the driver of same; and a horse rented for riding.
And a writer who churns out work for money.
I've never driven a cab, but I've written a lot of stuff, and some of it was mostly FTM -- for the money. So I'm okay with the notion of selling my time that way generally.
If somebody offered me a million bucks to write the next Reacher movie for Tom Cruise? I'd do it. It's clean work and the book writers allows as how he's good with Cruise in the role.
But there are folks with whom I have worked and wouldn't work with again for any amount of money. And if I see the signs that I'm about to enter a deal with somebody like them? The money would have to make me independently wealthy for me to even consider doing it, and at this point in my life, I might not go for it.
Never sure where I'll draw that line, but like a terrier knows a rat, I expect I'll know it when I see it ...
Maybe you should go for it.
ReplyDeleteMost people live until they're 80, and even then, they can live longer.
Being healthy; probably healthier than a lot of people, you have at least two *Decades* left.
That's a lot of time. And chances are you'll live longer than that.
There's a phrase I used to hear in Hollywood: Life is too short to work with assholes.
ReplyDeleteMore often than not, you can't avoid this, it's the nature of things; if you can? Do ...
I don't know for sure that would have been the case in this instance, but there were some warning signs I have seen before, and I decided not to ignore them; If It walks, quacks, and acts like a duck ... ?
Very true. Good points.
ReplyDeleteAmong the definitions of "hack," are those that refer to a taxicab, and by extension, the driver of same; and a horse rented for riding.
ReplyDeleteAnd a writer who churns out work for money.
I've never driven a cab, but I've written a lot of stuff, and some of it was mostly FTM -- for the money. So I'm okay with the notion of selling my time that way generally.
If somebody offered me a million bucks to write the next Reacher movie for Tom Cruise? I'd do it. It's clean work and the book writers allows as how he's good with Cruise in the role.
But there are folks with whom I have worked and wouldn't work with again for any amount of money. And if I see the signs that I'm about to enter a deal with somebody like them? The money would have to make me independently wealthy for me to even consider doing it, and at this point in my life, I might not go for it.
Never sure where I'll draw that line, but like a terrier knows a rat, I expect I'll know it when I see it ...