Day 171-- on proofreading
Friday, February 23, 2007
While I started editing culture.ish last week, I didn't officially start until today. Wait, not editing--that implies some sort of content control (which Chris x 2 seem to have down pat)--I'm the proofer. I skimmed over the content last week and made a few changes; I spent a good portion of today waist-deep in copy editing.
I really missed it, and I didn't realize it until now. As much as the time I spent working with the Cabinet shaped me, I have a lot of bad memories associated with the paper. Mind you, none of them are attached to people--I have nothing but praise to sing for my co-workers over the years. But the non-stop late late nights and sickness, the concussion I got, almost wrecking twice, problems with software and so on had marred the concept of copy editing by association. Silly me. This should not have been the case.
Maybe the change of scenery has something to do with it. Maybe it's that I've matured significantly (even in the past month, natch). Maybe it's that I'm more confident with myself. Maybe it's that I'm dealing primarily with content that interests me. Maybe maybe.
It's still dirty work, of course, and even moreso in this case. Many of the articles need to be a certain length, considering the space limitations with which we're operating. Paring down someone's review from 312 words to 175 smarts, especially when the writer has never written for a publication before. And I try to maintain their voice, not alienate them, encourage them, fix errors and make it readable with one fell swoop. Lord, help me.
But after I sent all of the revisions back--and remaining well aware that I'll dwell on what I missed or should've changed, this and that, here and there--I really think I'm going to love this.
posted, with grace and poise, by Jason @ 2/23/2007 05:10:00 PM,
2 Comments:
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At 11:41 PM,
Chris said...
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i'm very glad to hear that. thanks so much for your quick turn around.
chris and i would like to have you come talk at one of our meetings about what you see in their (and our) writings both in how the can improve and what they're doing well. -
At 12:59 AM,
RVWarren said...
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What does "natch" mean?
