Writing Boots

On communication, professional and otherwise.

Friday Happy Hour Video: Daddy, are writers white-collar or blue?

03.04.2011 by David Murray // 1 Comment

The headline paraphrases a cartoon that was on my writer dad's refrigerator.

And as far as word-lifting goes, this was a particularly blue-collar week here at Murray's Freelance Writing: In addition to my usual keyboard jackhammering, I put together the April issue of Vital Speeches (that's about 35,000 words) and also These Vital Speeches, a book of winners of the 2011 Cicero Speechwriting Awards (about 60,000 words).

And on the night I was feeling most bleary-eyed and whiny, I got a video from my father-in-law Sherdian, who doesn't even have a Twitter account. So what does he do with all that free time? He's overseeing the construction of this little project—all the logistics, all the materials, all the workers and (can you imagine?) all the daily problems, problems, problems. Though you'd hardly know that by listening to the cool dude narrate it.

It's because of this kind of vastness of difference in daily experience, even among members of a family, that all Americans—teachers and bankers, lawyers and general contractors—should listen hard to one another, should marvel at the best of one another, should try hard to make one another understand the origins of our own point of view.

We might even learn a thing or two about ourselves.

P.S. Exausted from this week's carping and tunneling, I'm going to take most or all of next week off the "bloog," as Studs Terkel always called 'em. I'll be hamming it, mixing it, and whooping it up with fellow scribes at the Ragan Speechwriters and Executive Communicators Conference, in Washington. I'll either see you there, or I'll catch you on the other side.

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Comments

  1. Sherdian says

    March 4, 2011 at 8:46 am

    Your too kind young man, but thanks for the kudos, your the best 🙂

    Reply

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