Notes from a Hired Pen: Holiday week pep talk!

Readers!

 

We’re leading into the unofficial start of summer, so how about a pep talk?

There are about 1,000 of you here, and while not everyone opens the newsletter version of this every week (AHEM), I am confident that I’ve got a good crowd of people who write for a living. You might be freelancers, authors, editors, or PR people trying to glean insights on how to pitch me. But for the most part, you’re communicators whose main job involves using words to communicate. So I’m going to share a story I shared privately with a reader last week.

I went to the University of Tampa meaning to study marine biology. I was good at it, but realized that being a bench scientist wasn’t for me. I’d started writing for the college newspaper my freshman year, and figured that an English degree would give me a decent base for whatever I wanted to do with my life. When I told the advisor assigned to me about my major change, he said “If you can write, you’ll always have a job.”

He hasn’t been wrong in the 20+ years since I graduated, though I’d edit his comment to replace “job” with “work” because I I don’t technically have a job, but have used my ability to write to support myself for my entire professional career. His advice has held true despite tech bros/CEOs trying to not pay us, specifically the “write for exposure” movement, and content farm madness where I was told $5 was a good rate for my work because if I didn’t accept it, someone else would. Neither of those spans were ideal, but I kept my head down, kept writing, and kept marketing. I believed that a good, solid writer was always going to be in demand, and that people were going to pay me for those skills, and that I just had to find them.

And so, “write for exposure” died. Content farms went bust. When each of these movements cratered, the need for good writers didn’t go down. Instead, it went up. Do you know how many times I was hired to clean up messes made by mid-level managers who had tried to cut corners? And their attempts to pay writers so little showed most people that you get what you pay for, which further proved I was right to charge what I did.

Am I writing this because of AI? Yes. I see the same pattern emerging, especially now that AI has a worse approval rating than ICE — YES THAT ICE. When I first took my “no fucking way” stance against AI in “writing,” it was partly out of fear, but mostly because I thought that I was right. But now? I know I’m right, and I’m going to continue to be aggressive about it.

I know it’s easy to get down about all this, especially when we are trying to survive within the framework that techno fascists are trying to hold us in. But I believe in me, I believe in you, and still don’t see the need for people like you and me going away. I’m not saying that the AI market implosion is going to be painless; nor will be the time until we get there. I think it’ll hurt the economy quite badly before the ship rights. But I believe with my full heart and soul that we’re going to win this fight, big time.

I don’t remember the name of my former college advisor who gave me that advice. But I want to thank him because he was right then, he’s right now, and will be in the future.

And if you are one of those tech slop bros, or “journalists” who try to convince me me YOUR AI “reporting” slop bot is not really all that bad, ONCE AGAIN Denzel will see you out.

 

 

Maybe that was more of a rant than a pep talk, but it’s my newsletter and I can, in fact, do what I want. Speaking of, I don’t think I’ll have a newsletter next week, but maybe something will inspire me (I have a feeling  we’re going to learn a LOT more about this guy’s “writing” process). If not, see you in June.

 

Recent Bylines

“Salmon-counting could be a breeze as environmental DNA technology advances,” Responsible Seafood Advocate

 

What I’m Reading

• Ghost Town by Tom Perrotta. This is a coming of age story told about one 13-year-old boy’s summer in a (fictional) Italian American town in New Jersey in the 1970s, right after his mother dies of cancer. It’s told as flashbacks from point of view of the adult Jimmy (though he goes by Jay now), as he decides whether or not to go back for the ceremony naming a building after his father. It’s a quick read, and a sad one, as Jimmy is mostly left to his own devices after the worst has happened to him — and tense since Perrotta drops plenty of hints that another tragedy lies ahead. I was annoyed by the New York Times review of this, which tried to line up the beats of the character’s life to that of the author. Perrotta has more than proven himself by writing all kinds of things, including The Leftovers. It’s fiction. Let it be fiction. Also, I interviewed Perrotta in TK for this banger I wrote for Salon about loving New Jersey, and this is very much a New Jersey book. And yes that piece also includes an interview with TK. RIP.

What I’m Watching

• The Last Showgirl. I’m late this sad but poignant movie that served as a launching pad to re-start Pamela Anderson’s career. I get why director Gia Coppola wanted her so badly for this part. Show biz has not been kind to her; and it hasn’t been for Shelley, the character she plays, either. But she’s wonderful in this, and as someone who likes Las Vegas but doesn’t go to Las Vegas to gamble, I appreciated seeing the city shot lovingly aside from the strip. Anderson did this not too long after FX made a miniseries about her relationship with Tommy Lee, which she denounced, so I’m glad she’s getting her flowers now (she’s great in the Naked Gun reboot too).
• Call the Midwife, season 15. It seems our annual jaunts into Popular and the nuns and midwives Nonnatus House are over, at least in this form. It isn’t really their fault. They ran up against the realities of time, and that the development of the National Health Service mean a change in how babies were born. But if UK TV is good at one thing, it’s keeping their television universes alive — Inspector Morse/Inspector Lewis/Endeavour is a great example of this, where it works rather than sucking IP dry. So hooray both a prequel and movie are in the works. I’m glad. Each week was a pleasant weep fest, and I don’t see any reason why they shouldn’t keep this world alive.
• House of Gucci. Haha. Hahah. Hahahahahahaha. OMG what was that. I don’t think they meant the movie to be funny, but I was howling at some parts. This is a ridiculous movie and I can’t say I loved every minute of it (it’s more than two and a half hours!!!!!) but I enjoyed the viewing experience, even if not in the way the Ridley Scott (Ridley Scott?!) intended. Also what are we doing with Jared Leto in a fat suit here, playing a Gucci like a clown. There are plenty of Italian and Italian American actors who could have played this part. Just throwing a dart at the Coppola family tree — which includes Nicholas Cage and Jason Schwartzman!!!!! — would have been a better way to cast that part. Adam Driver isn’t Italian, so what about Walton Goggins? Paul Walter Hauser? It wouldn’t have fixed this mess, but…anyone else! Sheesh.
• 80 for Brady. First of all, #gobirds. Second, this was fun! How could it not be with Lily Tomlin, Jane Fonda, Rita Moreno and Sally Field? They play four mega-Patriots fans who win a contest to go to the Superbowl, and set off on an adventure for it. Other than not liking football, this was pretty funny. The running joke about Jane Fonda’s character’s wigs amused me more than it should have.
• Blackberry. I had heard this 2023 movie about the creation the Blackberry was good, but I didn’t realize it was this good. Where House of Gucci was expensive, terrible, and bloated, this is fast, tense, nimble business thriller. It reminded me a lot of Dumb Money, which was about the people who short squeezed the Game Shop stock, and came out the same year.

 

Nail Polish of the Week

Blanc by Essie. I said in a previous newsletter hat the only nail polish colors that don’t work on me are white and lavender, and I have been proven wrong on at least white! This is fine if a bit bright sometimes. But it’s almost summer (I am writing this to you from the Jersey Shore!), so bring it on.

 

Until next time,

Jen A. Miller (she/her)

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