More then five years ago, I began work at Brains on Fire as a wordsmith. (Yes, I know it’s hard to believe with all my typos and such.) And the week I started, the Copy Chief and a  shareholder in the company, Scott Gould, gave me a piece of paper that I still have to this day. I pull it out from time-to-time for a gut check. And I thought I’d share it to give you a different glimpse of the culture around here.

“When you write for Brains on Fire…

You gotta fall in love with language. You should think of words as thin-tipped English pub darts you continuously toss at people who need a little prick. You gotta be the kind of person who loves to eavesdrop on conversations in restaurants. Read like a madman (or madwoman, as the case may be). And not just ad copy; you need to read everything from Faulkner to Larry Flint. You must be a thief; you should steal the good stuff you hear floating around in the atmosphere. (If your best buddy from south Georgia says, ‘Man, this weather is hotter than a double-dicked prairie dog,’ you’ve gotta say to yourself, I could use that somewhere.) Be ruthless with your own work. (“Kill your darlings. Slash and burn, man.) You gotta be in a constant state of re-education. Listen before you think, think before you write, then re-write everything you thought you heard. You gotta learn that a good line can come from anywhere, usually from people who aren’t writers. Think of yourself as an artist. (Everybody thinks he can write; very few can.) Find your voice.

In the words of the late, great Jim Dickey, ‘Writing is easy. You just have to get the right damn words in the right damn place.’

Your job is to find those places and fill them up.”

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