My Worst Ever Experience as a Writer

As writers, we go through myriads of challenges and emotional roller coasters that I simply don't have time to put down in writing; that would take like the whole week of pressing the keyboard buttons and dragging the cursor.

However, let me take this opportunity to share with comrades that one particular experience that scored a first in the long list of my worst experiences ever in the writing and publishing business...

I will be back shortly, with the details. In the meantime, let's hear yours. What was/is your worst experience ever as a writer in the writing business?

It's "myriad challenges," not "myriads of challenges." With syntax problems like that, I'd imagine you have all sorts of bad experiences.

My personal worst was being robbed for vodka.

Trust me, I am not that good at what I love; still learning the tight ropes. It has been a grueling learning experience. My only solace so far is that I keep making progress, no matter how little.

You just became my other good friend, Mr Editor75.

Thanks for the correction.


Wait a minute..! What if I said, "a myriad of challenges?" Would I be correct? What if it were to be, "myriad difficulties?", or even, "myriad problems?", would I still be correct? You seem to be a stickler for details, which is good thing for a person of your caliber. Please help me polish my grammar, Mr Editor75!

ha ha, a tortoise asking a snail how to run faster?
FYI, Editor75 aka dolt75 is a well known, self-confessed criminal with deplorable writing skills and pitiful 'intellectual skills'.
Just dig up this forum's past threads and you'll discover how incompetent and fraudulent this criminal is.

Yes; now you've got it.

Other than having the owner of an essay company waste my time giving me the runaround for months promising to pay me an outstanding $1750, I guess it would have to be having to write a pretty long paper for free after accidentally writing about the wrong topic.

best and worst moments

writing has ups and downs. Having worked for numerous companies and gaining vast experience, I have undergone several ups and downs. My best papers being literature analysis, critiquing literary writings, many students hailed me for having scored A++ in their papers, something to reckon. However, issues sometimes arise on administration sides. How do you feel when you feel your effort is not recognized? Especially when the student is dissatisfied on first check of the paper and you know the content is legit. These scenarios require unity among writers. What if writers of a given company can be offered with a platform just within the website to interact and share ideas? being treated like employees of a company, though virtually, such that they interact as if in one enclosed office. I think our companies still lack some appreciation for writers.

@aplusman I know someone who works at Academia Research. He recently told me that the new owners of the company installed a forum of sorts to allow the writers to air their grievances, make suggestions, and quite simply, just talk amongst themselves. At first the admin was very receptive to their suggestions and even interacted with them. Lately though, as the noose around the writer's necks have tightened even further, the communication with the company has ceased to exist at the forum.

He was very angry that all of the posts they made were simply met with statements of "We have noted your concern" and then nothing. No results came even after repeated follow ups on the part of the writers. It is almost as if the forum was just placed there to give the writers some venting room. It wasn't meant to really solve anything. The writer's plight at that company still continues to be one of continuous abuse by the owners of the company.

Rather than using the forum to show appreciation for their writers, instead, they used it as a venue to continue to ignore the writer's concerns. It seems to me that, regardless of the format, these companies will continue to abuse their writers simply because the virtual set-up of the employment allows them that opportunity to do so. Somehow my friend is still hanging in there though. He hopes that since the owners of the company and the policies keeps on changing, that eventually, he'll come across an owner who will be sympathetic to the writer's plight and he will enact regulations that finally, will protect the rights of the writers.

A potential sympathetic new owner would not want to be involved in a service with so much negative baggage (so even if there is a new owner, they are not going to be altruistic :|

Best moment(s): All the clients who have reported graduating and going on to practice their respective professions for big bucks. Also, a one-hour assignment that I reluctantly accepted for $500 and got my client a good-paying job -- which he still enjoys today.

Worst moment: I've mentioned this one before: A HUGE assignment on oil imports to Sudan (they're a net exporter). Fifty pages later I learn that the client was wanting "vegetable oil" as the topic. Sigh.

@ProfessorVerb I was wondering, was the error caught before or after you submitted the paper to the client? Was it in its final form? I really find that story of yours both sad and funny. I mean, you basically ended up having to write 2 papers for the price of one. Was it a miscommunication with the client? I tend to think that maybe the client misunderstood the instructions he was given, as is usually the case, so when he passed it on to you, the error became inevitable. How many hours did it take you to write the first paper? I can tell that it was heavily research based. I hope that you had enough time to correct the paper without having to ask the client for an extension? I guess you can tell what I am driving at. I am very interested in the short version of your story so I am hoping that you would be willing to indulge me and tell me more about what happened? The more I think about it, the more I think it was a comedy of errors that led you to that point. Did you see the humor in the situation as well?

The paper I wrote was beautiful, complete in every way and nailed down tight. It was only after submitting it to our client that the actual topic was made known. Fifty pages back then required about 2 full days of work, but it would probably take the better part of a week now (I'm MUCH older now). To their credit, the company I worked with then (and now) reimbursed me for my wasted time and everyone was happy. This was just an extreme but it is not isolated. It is easy enough for people who speak the same language to misunderstand each other, and computer-mediated forums involving people from different countries who speak different languages do not facilitate the process. Anyway, I got paid ...

I agree with you. This post is really rousing. I like your post and all that you share with us is present and exceptionally useful, I need to bookmark the page.

The paid part is what is important in the scenario. That makes it an "ends well" story, which is what the outcome for all independent writers should be. I hope if you won't mind if I share my story about my worst experience as well. I had written the perfect personal statement for a client. As you would say, it was perfect in every way. The client even acknowledged as much when he gave me a bonus for a job well done. I was satisfied that the story of the client was going to end there. Little did I know that the bonus was just the start of the "paper from hell".

He was an immigrant trying to make it as a doctor in the USA. The first paper I did for him was for an application of a residency as a neurosurgeon. That was the paper that I got a bonus for. Then, a week later, he comes back, and asks me to revise the paper, this time, he wanted me to remove certain information from the application. Since the company had an unlimited revision policy, I accommodated the request. The next week, he comes back, asking me to change certain information in the paper. I started to get suspicious that he was trying to play the system and he wasn't really a foreign doctor who was qualified to work in the USA. I brought this to the attention of the company. The company tells me not to worry about it and just turn in the revised paper. I do the same. By the 4th week of weekly revisions, I find out, through the client, that he is trying to get documents to get around the state qualifying exam because he is not qualified to practice in the US. He doesn't have a US license and recently failed the state licensing exam. No wonder no amount of revision could get him considered for a residency! I told him I could not knowingly lie in the paper and say he passed among the top 5 percentile of the state test takers. He complained to the company and after a month of revisions, The company tells me that they have to refund the paper and I was fined 100 percent due to the situation I created. Sheesh! Definitely my worst experience ever.

I had a student once hire me to write a scholarship essay for one of the notable scholarship foundations out there. I was provided with a pre-written paper with instructions to merely, edit the provided information. Nothing was to be changed and it was only to be improved based on what was already on the screen. As you can probably tell, the set of instructions I received tied my hands as far as improving the essay was concerned. I had to work within the limitations and hope that the horrible paper would somehow improve itself.

After submitting the paper to the client, I was accused of running a scam because nothing in the essay was changed to the point where a new essay was written for the client. When the company tried to explain that the instructions were followed to the letter, the client insisted on a refund because of the scam that was taking place. It turned out that the client only wanted to pay less for the paper by making trouble.

A discount was offered, I wrote a new paper, free of the original restrictions and submitted it to the client. The client was happy but the company and I got scammed. What an unforgettable experience! That was my first experience with a student scam artist that taught me a very good lesson in trusting clients too much and following instructions to the letter.

Bumping into this thread reminds me of the time that I thought I built a healthy, communicative work-based relationship with a client. She began to open up about her personal endeavors in the academic field. Afterwards, she turned cold and never answered my messages anymore. A week past the deadline, I still do not know what happened. Luckily, I was working with a company that had resolved the issue and released the money regardless of the circumstance and the "ghosting" of the client. These things happen.

My worst experience would have to be a client who asked me to revise the content of his resume about 10 times, each time, changing the content and format with the inclusive instruction; "This time, do not mention xxx. Instead say xxx". Every single time. It got to the point where I had to remind the company that I was rewriting the paper already, not revising content. Guess what? What company did not care. They said the client paid for unlimited revisions and that is what he was getting! The company apparently did not understand the difference between a revision and a rewrite, I left that company soon after that experience.