Swamped

I've slowly been realizing recently that my department doesn't have a writer/editor, except me. And I was not hired to do that job. My writing skills were definitely part of what got me hired, and there was some writing and editing involved in the job description, but as a member of the web team a lot of my responsibilities were more on the interactive, marketing, Dreamweaver end of things. But there is just so much demand for content development for all of our projects right now that while I do those other things to some extent, my job has become primarily that of writer/editor.

Which, I'm not complaining, because I love writing and editing and I'm so glad that I work in an office that notices people's particular skill sets and capitalizes on them, unlike in my last job where it was much more a system of being required to struggle up the totem pole no matter what needs you could meet. Even if there was a document that needed to be edited and I had absolutely nothing to do, I was not allowed to edit it independently because I was too far down the chain. Whereas here, people just notice that writing and editing are my strengths and therefore ask me to do those things.

So really, I shouldn't complain that I'm the only writer/editor, because if this place were organized like my last office, there would be three editors and two writers, and those would be the only people allowed to do those jobs. The attitude of "Anyone who knows how to do this should just do it regardless of their job description" is what has allowed me to do all of this stuff that I'm really enjoying doing.

But my god, am I ever snowed under with work right now. I'm writing a science-based website for one project, which means that everything I write has to be based on huge stacks of research that I have to slog through, and it must all be cited. Which slows down the writing process significantly. In the meantime, other projects require monthly marketing pieces, newsletters, fresh web content, etc. And my reputation as an editor has spread, so now people have started sending me things they've written to proofread before they send them on to the client.

So, in a nutshell, I am really lucky to work where I do and get to really do what I love. But wow, am I busy. It's so nice to write a blog post instead of more web content and get to just write and flow and not have to cite or look up quotes or supporting research. It feels like a breath of fresh air. (And here I call myself a writer and then I break out the worst of clichés. Maybe I should be calling myself a hypocrite instead.)

Oh, and in other news, the voting has commenced for the photo contest that I entered last week. For a long time nobody voted for mine at all and I felt like a failure, but now one person, named Sylvia, has voted for one of mine (they are numbers 10 and 11) so I feel marginally better. But only marginally. Still, thanks to Sylvia, whoever you are.