Times are tough for aspiring writers.
Newspapers are closing down left and right, magazines are firing editorial staff and replacing them with crowd-sourced content and, for some reason, no matter how many times you get blackout drunk you've yet to wake up a completed first draft of the Great American Novel sitting on your desktop.
This isn't to say there's a complete dearth of opportunities for talented scribes. Take, for example, a recent posting that appeared on Craigslist's San Francisco Bay Area section.
One "31-year-old, single straight male, 6 ft tall, educated, well traveled, and working a good job in San Francisco" is looking to contract the services of someone of the literary persuasion to help him design and manage his online dating profile.
"I am simply too busy to do this myself," he writes, "and could also use the assistance of someone with a little more creative flair than I have at my disposal."
"I will pay you $200 to create my profile for an online dating website (I haven't decided which one; we can discuss this)," the ad continues. "For each successful first date you set up with a girl of whom I approve, I will pay you an additional $40. If I end up becoming in a relationship with someone you put me in touch with (thereby ending our agreement), I will pay you an additional $200 'severance' bonus."
Also, check out that correct semicolon usage! (Swoon!)
We think this is an amazing opportunity for a young, female writer to sign up for the job, initially despise her new employer and then slowly, over the course of about 90 minutes, gradually fall in love with him. The movie version will star Rachel McAdams and Matthew McConaughey, be named Alright Cupid (after the fictional dating site they use) and have a disappointing opening weekend.
On Reddit, some commenters thought the whole thing was "creepy" while one Redditor speculated, "the CL poster will have a string of first dates with the writer's friends."
Even so, this isn't in the same ballpark as the creepiest thing someone has done on Craigslist this week alone.
