Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Lean, Mean Editing Machines

Experienced editors understand that, in the grand scheme of things, we shouldn't sweat the small stuff, despite what any style manual or guidelines dictates. The readers will never know the difference anyway.

I remember an upperclassman telling me, shortly after I arrived at Rutgers, that the secret to success in college (given the enormous reading and workload) is to figure out what you can get away with not doing.

IMHO the same is true for editing.

The more I edit, the more I ignore, within reason. In the last book I worked on, I dispensed with changing e.g. and i.e. to you know what. Beginning with my current book, "he or she" and their variations will remain undisturbed.

When I was a managing editor, my direction to my staff and freelancers was "efficiency: the maximum quantity/quality output with the minimum input." I continue to manage myself toward that goal.

Misdirection

Copy editing
Hack who penned “right of passage”
That’s as rite as rein

Sunday, June 27, 2010

Anthropomorphism

If memory serves, this is the first time I have ever used that word in writing.

Several weeks ago, the hook thing below fell off of my venetian blinds. I couldn't reattach it. One of my building's maintenance guys, who was in my apartment for something else, struggled but succeeded in reattaching it.

A few days ago, it fell off again. It is now gathering dust.

The more I look at it, the more it appears to be giving me the finger.

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Impediments

According to C.W. Moss, "dirt in the fuel line" was the problem with Bonnie and Clyde's car.


A killer stiff neck has impeded my editing performance for four days and counting.

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

If it's Wednesday, it must be humanitarian day.

I just finished an article for my online editing work: "How To Lose Fat in Your Forehead." Seriously.

The thought of countless folks whose lives will be changed as a result of their slimmed-down foreheads warms my heart and will sustain me for days to come.

Dare I hope for the Presidential Medal of Freedom?

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Obviously

"A former newsletter reporter is need to write articles for website dealing with regulatory issues." (from Craigslist)

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Playing Defense

One of the good things about being an editor is the regimen of 40+ hours a week of brain exercise. And the experts say that as we age, this is particularly helpful to keep dementia at bay.

When it comes to working out my gray matter, I like to cross-train.

Saturday, June 5, 2010

The Siren Call

I get paid per article for the online editing that I do. I can edit, on average, about six articles an hour.

Unlike my book editing, for which I receive an annual salary as a "permanent freelancer," the online editing literally represents "time is money."

So, for example, when I'm watching a "Seinfeld" re-run, the thought occurs to me that I could knock out a few articles in the same period of time.

I've come to feel that piece work is the editorial equivalent of heroin addiction. And the possible "quantity" bonuses that the client dangles in front of the editors are not exactly methadone!

One editor wrote on our forum that she edits while nursing her baby.

I think I hear my checking account whispering, "Feed me. Feed me."

These "optics" have me seeing red.

Call me a purist, but I believe that words should be used as they are defined in the dictionary.

It is for that reason that I bristle when I see or hear vogue words as, for example, in this news headline: "Obama’s Vacation Optics – Axelrod and Co. Fail to Protect President’s Image."

The use of "optics" to mean "appearance" or "impression" does not set the writer apart as he no doubt intended. Rather, it simply demonstrates that he is an unoriginal, unimaginative writer just jumping on the language bandwagon of the day.

Friday, June 4, 2010

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Part II

Yesterday I completed my edit of a particularly difficult manuscript (see 5/26 entry).

It pretty much took all the editing out of me, and I have struggled today to do any online article editing—my second gig along with book editing.

I believe I am suffering from a condition that the American Psychiatric Association needs to include in its DSM: PTESD, or Post-Traumatic-Editing Stress Disorder.

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Variation on a Theme

Do spammers actually believe that the software program used to generate their messages can do an end run around spam filters?

I have received, in my spam folder, scores of various misspelling of "I am looking for a date." I'm not good at math, but those letters surely must contain scores of additional possible rearrangements. So I expect them to continue for some time.

My favorite, thus far: "I am loobaking for a date."

You know the old saw, the way to a man's heart is through his stomach. But "baking in the loo"? That's a fail.