TELL ‘EM TO DO THEIR OWN DAMN WORK!!!
I'm wearing you down, baby. I'm wearing you down!
THEM: Maintenance? Sounds like road work or something? What is it, exactly? Well…never mind; can’t you just print a few contests out and bring them to my house?
ME: [deflated and defeated, because I really am a nice person, after all] Okay, sure. I’ll be by in about an hour. Will you be home?
THEM: Yes. I don’t go anywhere. I don’t have a way to get anywhere. People just don’t know about my life. People like you, who have it made, have no idea what people like me have to go through everyday. Of course I’ll be here. Where else would I be? And how would I get there? Really, you can be so thoughtless sometimes…
So I get off the phone and log onto my blog, and go through every post I’ve written (and believe me, there are dozens of them!) so I can find a competition for my friend. My esophagus bobs and twitches. It is backed up with bitter bile as I concede that I have once again been tricked into doing someone else’s work.
Why won’t people do their own work? Why??? After all, I have provided information and links; I’ve provided contact persons, deadlines and word lengths. All this friend–or any other writer, for that matter, has to do is log on and look over the website. But I couldn’t even get her to do that. In the end, I do it for her.
I wanted to “Just say no,” but for some reason, the words wouldn’t come out. Where the heck is Mrs. Bush when you need her?
So I grudgingly locate and print out three contest summaries and head to my writer-friend’s house…and guess what? She’s not even home when I get there!
Curses…foiled again!
What lesson did I learn from all this???
a. Don’t, under any circumstances, answer the telephone ever again!
b. Delete my writer’s blog so no one will ask me anything about it ever again.
c. Tell my friend to go jump in the lake…then offer her a ride if she doesn’t have a way to get there.
d. Tell her and people like her to “Do Your Own Damn Work!”
Best Answer: D: “Tell ‘Em to Do Their Own Damn Work!”
Best wishes and happy writing!
Rita
PS – Thanks for indulging me!
July 5th, 2009 at 5:32 pm
Hi Rita, I read your posts often as I can find them. I finally got the courage to pull all my half-written stuff out to begin writing for real after seeing your “go get-um” attitude here. I have you in my blog friends that I read regularly. Just thought you might like to see what an already (newly)published writer is going through in her process – and maybe you can have a little hope that Yes! you (Rita H.) are making a difference out there! come on over to my place and read about Karen Collum & “Possum”. Talula
July 8th, 2009 at 11:00 am
Hey Talula!
Thanks for writing. You’ve really made my day. And thanks for taking my article, “Tell ‘Em to Do Their Own Damn Work!” in the spirit in which it was written–with a little vexation and a whole lotta love.
Wishing you the very best in all you do,
Rita Lorraine
PS – On my way to visit your site
July 8th, 2009 at 6:56 pm
Just wanted to say thanks for stopping by. Hoped you like Karen’s story. I just knew that it was a post i had to send out to the larger world of families. She is a terrific writer in many genres, though mostly in Children’s work. This story is not just personal — it is a passion of hers to write childrens positive thinking books for the foster care children & families in Australia. I really hope the publishers will pick it up for her after the family gets through this ordeal with her son’s heart surgery, and she can polish it till it shines. Thanks for all you for us lonely writers out here!