September 14, 2000

3:35 PM

A friend of mine has started posting a [true] story on ThemeStream. Interesting reading (if somewhat smutty and violent). Plus, ThemeStream's royalty rate goes down soon, so read them now and help him suck even more VC money :)
posted by faisal (8 comments total)

Hey, I'm the guy who wrote the story. As some of my friends read parts 2 and 3, they got really really uncomfortable and said it was too personal; one of them even asked me "What if a potential employer reads that in 10 years and decides not to hire you because of it?"

My instinct is that if an employer won't hire me because of this, then I probably don't want to work for them. But am I just being naive? Am I going to hate having written this 10 years from now? I've already had one girl give me a little grief, saying she hoped my manners in bed have improved since then.
posted by peterb at 3:39 PM on September 14, 2000

eh.

I read them. The writing's good, the story has a good flow, but I don't think it's anything more personal than is on your standard late-teenager's journal site.

I'm not suggesting you're a late-teenager, I'm saying many who currently are, and have journal sites, would right about such an experience 5 minutes after she walked out the door.

I highly doubt an employer is going to concern themselves with it, especially if you don't put it on your resume.

Umm... unless you're going for a writing position, and want to put it on your resume. If that's the case, then it's a good example of your ability to be both coherent, personal, and mildly objective.

In other words, I wouldn't be terribly concerned.
posted by cCranium at 4:01 PM on September 14, 2000

I guess it depends on what kind of employer you're worried about. Are you going to do writing for a living? If so, they expect you to write stories, and some of that is (nowadays) going to be online. Some of them may presumably be true.

If your employment is going to be about something else, you may want to cautiously read Cam Barrett's tale of getting screwed -- by an employer who found out he had fiction online. I think this sort of thing is less and less likely to worry a certain sort of employer, but at the same time more and more likely to affect a wider range of people in a wider variety of jobs.

As for ten years from now, well, I can only say that almost anything I wrote more than ten days ago I consider embarrassingly naive, horribly phrased, and excruciatingly long. Maybe that's just me. ;-) But as a writer, you get used to it.

For my money, this kind of raw, honest confessional writing will outlast almost anything written for more selfish, ego-boosting reasons. It's good stuff. Not great, but pretty good.

And I'm sorry about the lady.
posted by dhartung at 4:32 PM on September 14, 2000

My instinct is that if an employer won't hire me because of this, then I probably don't want to work for them. But am I just being naive?

If you are, I am too. That's exactly the way I've always felt about it.

(I'm sure that if anything I write ever gets me fired, I'll let you all know about five minutes later.)
posted by Sapphireblue at 5:25 PM on September 14, 2000

Yeah, but it does happen.
posted by endquote at 9:34 PM on September 14, 2000

(eh, yeah. read before posting, josh. my bad.)
posted by endquote at 9:35 PM on September 14, 2000

There's another good story at Theme Stream if you're interested in some humor. Does anyone remember laughter?
posted by Outlawyr at 6:46 AM on September 15, 2000

i smell a self-post. call out the dogs!
posted by Sapphireblue at 7:12 AM on September 15, 2000