Tappity Tap Tap - What an odd day

Welcome back to Tappity Tap Tap, my weekly(ish) writing column. I don’t think I’ve actually written one of these since changing the name, but it is a New Year that will be full of new experiences.

I wasn’t sure what I’d be writing about today. I wasn’t sure I’d even sit down to write this column. I’ve been up since three am spending nine or ten hours working on finishing a project. A client asked me to write a series of fifty articles all revolving around a certain subject. He wanted these articles to have a fast turnaround, so I told him I could do it.

I did do it.

I ended up writing forty of the fifty articles. These are small pieces, around 335 to 350 words each. These articles all have to do with one subject but are for five different websites. Because of this, I wrote the first ten articles about this subject but with different angles. I then took each angle and rewrote it three more times. This created the forty different articles I ended up turning in. This is pretty boring work but I can do it fast and it pays the bills.

Welcome to my life, folks.

I told my client I would be doing the last ten articles, since I spent about eight or nine hours on these today. He said okay and went on to approve half the articles I turned in. Each article has to be approved before I can be paid for it, so I ended up getting half the money I worked for today.

My client emails me a bit later and said his client, the people he who commissioned these articles, didn’t like my point of view on the articles. Because of this, he didn’t want me to write the remaining ten.

This is totally fine. I followed the instructions I had and even incorporated some notes my client gave me. However, my response to him is this:

“Hey, people want what they want. Do you want me to give up the last ten articles for another writer? I can do that. I just want to make sure I get paid for the work I’ve done.”

I am working for hire right now. It doesn’t bother me that these nameless people didn’t like the point of view I wrote from. (My client explained it in fuller detail, by the way, so I know exactly what I did or didn’t do.) What irritates me is I might not be paid for work I put in to this. Now, the place where I pick up these articles has a policy that the work can’t be rejected outright the first time they are turned in. My client may send them back for revision, which means I’ll have to put more time in the articles than I already have. Time I could be spending working on other projects that will pay.

So, this is the first time I hit a situation like this: Where the client liked my articles but the people he is working with did not. They didn’t reject them for my writing, but for the point of view taken with the articles.

I don’t know how to feel about this. Like I said, I’m fine with them not liking the articles but I can’t help but feel I wasted my whole week on this project. I’ve been paid for a good portion of it, at least. I don’t know if I’ll get money for the ten I still have waiting but… At this point, I kind of just want to move on. I don’t want to sink more hours in it for the small amount of money I actually get paid per article.

I really want to get out of this web-content grind. It just wears on the soul. That is one of my expectations for the year and this situation is one of the main reasons why. If I were getting paid a hundred grand for a rejected script, it’d be much easier to deal with, heh.

Right now, I’m very tired. I’ve only had about five hours sleep and have been up since 2 am. (Let me see I woke up at 2am didn’t start working until 3 am… it is 6:30 pm right now. So that is 18 and ½ hours? On four or five hours sleep…sheez.) I don’t now how to feel about this situation. I don’t feel bad or rejection or anything, mainly I just want to move on. I need to really focus on getting out of this gig and on to new things. Yah, that’s the ticket!

Post Script: As I said above, I am tired. I have gone through this and edited it the best I can, but I’m sure there are errors and such left. Forgive my weary eyes!  Also – the music I posted in this post is the type I listened throughout the long hours of working this morning.

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