Thursday, July 25, 2013

The Future of Writing

Those interested in fiction tend to also follow both reviews and news of prestigious awards. However, neither of these gives any indication of how a writing of fiction manages to make ends meet. I was therefore amused today to find a post to craigslist with the headline:
Experienced Fiction Writer Wanted
Naturally, I wondered about the details. Was this a new opportunity to find work with the CIA or NSA? Had Rupert Murdoch come up with yet another boiler-room operation? Here (in its entirety) is what I found:
Highly accomplished team of business and publishing executives is looking for a skilled writer with special acumen in character development and the collaborative process to help complete a complex novel that has strong commercial appeal. The story is fully plotted, but we are open to creative ideas on structure, characters or color.
The story is a timely, dark comedy that takes place in the rarefied world of San Francisco society. No personal knowledge of S.F. is required. More details will be forthcoming for interested and qualified applicants.
The creative team consists of a Wall Street executive (and former journalist), a Los Angeles-based television executive, a top NY-based magazine and book editor and a senior editor at a major metropolitan newspaper who has written and directed three films.
This may not be a Murdoch scheme; but it strikes me as an interesting sign of how assembly-line thinking has now found a place in the production of what once may have been called "literature!"

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