I’ve been a writin’ fool for the last three days. I haven’t written this much (that isn’t a script) since college. So it is fitting, I thought, that today’s picture is me in my pjs wearing my Chapman University sweatshirt.
It’s not just the amount that reminds me of college, it’s that what I’m writing really needs to be right. I’m currently drafting a private placement memorandum (PPM), subscription agreements and deal memos – about half a dozen deal memos. Very real money rides on the paperwork that is being drafted. Normally, when you’re flush with cash, you have lawyers draft these kinds of things for you. I’m not flush with cash, but I’m very lucky: I know a healthy amount of contract law (a benefit of over 20 years of reading them) and I have good friends who are lawyers who check my work. But I still need to do the work first before it can be reviewed. I’m getting pretty good at these, but they require a lot of re-reading to make sure I don’t start rambling off into nonsense.
I equate legalese to Shakespearean writing structure: when you just glance at it the writing seems daunting and confusing, but when you actually buckle down to read it it makes complete sense, it’s just very specific because it has to be. There’s no cutting corners when you’re writing a contract because a cut corner is a loop hole and a loop hole is really just a way that a conniving bastard can screw you. I don’t like to put myself into a position to get screwed legally, who does?
So that’s my story for today, and probably for the rest of the week.
Oh, one last bit! Here’s a very funny commercial that Rene showed me that she was shown by our writer friend Chris. We like it because it’s how we talk. That might be a bad thing to admit to. Enjoy!
See you tomorrow!