What is the worst writing job you have ever had ?

The one that ‘stands’ out for me is a few years ago, 50 x 400 words about the thrilling world of TV stands and its amazing variations, drove me just about insane. I am sure people probably have even worse experiences, but that one sticks in my mind

 

Ah, memories. Yes back in the day I do remember my pet peeve was trying to communicate with buyers who couldn't speak English well. Therefore, it was hard to get an idea on what they wanted. Then later getting a "I didn't like this article because you didn't do what I said" type messages would really get me frustrated!

*Shudders*

 

My worst experience was being gullible, write 75 500 word articles on about 10 different subjects and never getting paid for it. It was a reputed person who insisted paying after he got the articles and since I had no feedback. He told me that I wasn't yet trustworthy..

really sucked a lot.

 

I've got three of these inquiries right now, wanting me to do some writing for them. I explicitly repeated exactly what their message said to me, to see if that's what they wanted.

No. It wasn't.

Then they repeated the SAME message to me that they previously sent...that they just said I got completely wrong.

Yanno what? I ain't your girl. You need to hire an interpreter before you hire a writer.

On a side note, how could they be sure they were getting the 'perfect English' they were demanding?

Lawda mercy.

 

Haha, I actually laughed.

I thought of another one. When one demands that you used improper grammar or writing style, when in fact you are correct. Eventually I just stopped trying. Some people are impossible to convince without hurting their ego.

 

Two years ago I wrote an ebook (~50 pages) on Castles -- yes, castles. I did the project for it paid VERY well, but it still makes me laugh today (I blame that for my carpal tunnel).

While these were not the worst writing jobs, I had one client (who barely spoke a word of English) who needed me to write for him on completely strange topics: Silviculture, HEMOPHILIACs ???, and yearbooks

Good thread

 

A buyer gave me a project to write about 17 articles. After submitting the work, the buyer started to complain for no good reason. At that time, there was no arbitration at the freelance site where I worked so I had to re-write the articles multiple times just to make the buyer happy. Buyer simple wanted not to pay me. So after re-writing the articles multiple times, the buyer finally vanished and never contacted again.

This writing job was the worst one for me.

 

To date, the worst writing assignment I took on was for a BELIEVABLE review for a website that sold Genie rings... as in buy this ring for 50 bucks, rub it and a magical Genie will grant your wish.

I thought my husband would NEVER stop laughing.

~MLS

 

I don't think I'll stop laughing over that one.. Genie rings?? hee hee sorry!

 

That's hysterical! Pretty much the first thing that popped into my head:

 

The one that required 300 articles - 500 words - in just 3 days... I still remember the team thumping keyboards frantically

 

I was once asked to write 1000 words on each of the Spanish speaking nations in Asia.
When I pointed out that there were no nations in Asia who speak Spanish (I know Philippine language has tiny bits of Spanish) he responeded that I was too lazy to do the research and he would give it to someone else.

 

*rofl, What?! That drives me crazy that hundreds of people offer these kind of writing jobs.
Well, it seems that everyone has topped my stories, and honestly, that's a good thing

 

Hesster,

My son is 19, but I still watch Aladdin every once in awhile (by myself). It will always be one of my favorite Disney movies.

~MLS

 

My worst project was when I was hired to write a user's guide for a new computer system and not being given access to the system. The project manager did not want me in the system because I might have to do some rewriting. I tried to explain to her that writing a new manual for a new system always involved rewriting as the software was tested and last minute features were added. I also reminded her that technical writers are typically the first people on the system and discover many of the problems before it is released to the users. No dice, she insisted that I wait until the software was complete.

So, her solution was to expect me to sit at my desk all day. Oh, and I wasn't allowed to use the phone, the Internet or read a book. I tried doing some personal writing but even that was eventually prohibited. For eight hours a day, I was expected to sit and stare at the walls of my cubical.

She finally thought I could write a programmer's guide for her staff. That worked equally well. The programmers refused to give me time and the supervisor seemed to think I could figure out how her folks programmed without seeing any of their work or actually speaking to them.

At the time, I was contracted by one of those big staffing firms. The young and inexperienced account rep that looked like he just stepped out of a GQ magazine and who had a shiny new business degree and no computing experience couldn't understand why I was unhappy. He kept reminding me that it is everyone's dream to get paid for doing nothing.

The slow torture lasted about 3 weeks. She decided that perhaps she had hired the technical writer too soon (apparently the pretty boy had charmed her into hiring one) and that I had a bad attitude. Oh, and she also complained that I used the phone too much. Those calls were actually to that rep begging him to either find me another contract or talk the client into letting me do something. LOL

 

YMC that had to suck a lot.
I haven't really had any bad experiences yet, but i'm sure I will sooner or later.

 

My bad writing jobs have been pretty tame because so far my career in writing has been pretty short. Worst I can think of was writing 2 star articles at textbroker, and that was mainly because the pay was dirt, not the subject of the articles themselves. Worst I've seen (but not participated in) is, uh... this:

http://boise.craigslist.org/wrg/1087590178.html

No way I'm going to touch this subject with a 10 foot pole. I also seem to recall someone writing in their freelance writing blog that some buyer on Demand Studios wanted 200 articles on rectal bleeding. I think if I had to write 200 articles on that, I'd start bleeding... from the ears, of course.

 

Helping a girl that I had a HUGE crush on with an essay, and then watching her get another guy for a boyfriend a days after that. Man that sucked. At least they didn't last long lol

 

LOL I guess a lot of people are hiring writers with no idea if they are being delivered drivel or nobel prize material. Maybe that's why folks, especially those guys over at the content creation forum, just take the lowest bidder possible, despite promotion threads that read something like, "Best writting service, kindly cheapest rates."

I went back and forth with one client on rates. I was quite specific how much I charge per word. He said it sounded like a great offer and wanted to order in bulk! If I could just give him a final quote...

Well, I thought to myself, "Uh.... Can you neither speak nor COUNT?" But I went the distance and spelled it out. "Well, at X rate for X words, you're looking at X dollars."

The client shut down and said that was just outside of his price range. The whole time he assumed I had misplaced a decimal.

 

Which head was in charge that day?