Adopt-a-Writer

First up, if anyone wants to adapt me, hit me up. I'm starving, my dog is starving and we're desperate. FYI, my dog used to blog with me, but he gave up blogging in favor of pointless, incessant barking.

"The contest will be run through the AllFreelancing forum, where freelance writers can enter by posting in the announcement thread. The writers will be narrowed down over the course of several weeks, until a winner is chosen.

The winner will be “adopted” by the Six Figure Challenge writers, who will work personally with them personally to help them set and achieve their writing goals for 2007, including helping them to improve their skills, teaching them how to break into new markets, and showing them how they can earn a higher income from their writing. The contest is targeted towards new freelance writers or those in low-paying markets who wish to break out beyond them." - www.sixfigurewriters.com

The field will be narrowed until "a" winner is chosen. Then the challenge writers will work with "them"?? Am I missing something here? How many winners are there going to be? One or more? And please don't tell me it was a typing mistake. These people are supposed to teach others how to write. Well, I suppose they could teach me how to make money by writing press releases, but I doubt the rest of it. Call me a cynic, but seems more like a money making stunt, than real altruistic intent.

This leads to something which I have been thinking of lately. Reality vs. writing.
What's the reality? That you and me are hack writers, and we'll write anything a customer wants, so long as we get paid for it. That's reality. There is absolutely no artistic element to hack writing. You optimise sentences to appeal to search engines and sell products. Is the product any good? Who gives a shit? That's reality.

And writing? See the Orhan Pamuk post. That's writing. How do you reconcile these two? Show me a site which features nothing but great writing - writing for the love of writing - and which is making money. I promise you, heart and soul, me and my dog will give up hack writing. Meantime, though, you can still adapt this writer.

Update here: As you can see in the comments to this post below, there's been some clearing of the air. On my side, I would like to stuff my hat into my mouth, hang my head in shame and apologise unreservedly for my mean and nasty nitpicking. Apologies to all parties concerned. It was wrong of me to make an accusation without cross-checking with the source. I've said before that blog writers have to behave like proper journalists, as far as possible, if they want to be taken as seriously as readers take print and MSM scribes. I forgot or ignored that rule. I wish the writers of www.sixfigurewriters.com the best in their efforts.