Thursday, March 16, 2006
Tedium
I don't know about you but building new documents out of old ones is tedium. I spent most of yesterday stringing together sentences and words from 10 or so releases, pitch letters and fact sheets into a white paper. There's just no fun in doing that. Pick up something here, a little there and perhaps, a word or two over there. Drop them in a line and massage until smooth. It's slower work than if one wrote originally and in the end, with all the changes, one is writing anew. But, there aren't any new resources to consult, and the client needs a white paper.
The challenge is that every underlying document was purpose-built so its focus and tone are different. In the end, all one does really is to lift facts and start over. On occasion, it is possible to take a full sentence, but inevitably, something sticks out and needs changing.
So, it's hour and hour of tinkering. After awhile, you hope the phone rings, and another client needs something fast. That gives you an excuse to drop the writing for awhile. Fortunately, exactly that happened. I was able to arrange an interview on the spur of the moment with a major business magazine.
But all that means is the rest of the white paper is sitting there and waiting for me -- today.
Groan.
The challenge is that every underlying document was purpose-built so its focus and tone are different. In the end, all one does really is to lift facts and start over. On occasion, it is possible to take a full sentence, but inevitably, something sticks out and needs changing.
So, it's hour and hour of tinkering. After awhile, you hope the phone rings, and another client needs something fast. That gives you an excuse to drop the writing for awhile. Fortunately, exactly that happened. I was able to arrange an interview on the spur of the moment with a major business magazine.
But all that means is the rest of the white paper is sitting there and waiting for me -- today.
Groan.
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