Tuesday, May 03, 2005
I Still Get A Thrill....
Well, maybe a thrill overstates the case.
Let's call it a little adrenaline rush, a charge....a pleasing moment.....it happens whenever I hear one of "my" lines quoted back to me in an evening news sound bite - or used at a different event in a different context.
It is a fact of life that freelance speech writers figuratively and metaphorically work in the back rooms of commerce and politics. Unlike their in- house counterparts, they will rarely get public acknowledgement of their efforts, so they better like the work for its own sake.
What's not to like?
You get to put words in other peoples' mouths.
You get to share in their professional passions.
You get to research all sorts of fascinating topics and by the time you are sick of any one subject, the job is over and the next assignment comes along.
And you often get to write the first articulation of public and corporate policy. And in so doing shape it. Now that is a thrill.
