Anal people, unite!

[cjsmith]

Saturday afternoon I took a short course titled "Become a Copyeditor or Proofreader." Amusing factoid: the guy who spoke to us is the person responsible for Hershey's Syrup spelling "recipe" correctly on their bottles. I knew there were rare other people who'd notice such a thing, but it was validating to meet a guy who writes to companies and gets such mistakes corrected!

As for my fellow students, I have never seen so much anal-retentiveness gathered in one room. Wow. I had found my tribe!

I was a little disappointed that no one there, including the speaker, could spell better than I could. :-)

I'm sure I could make a living at this if I spent a bit of time building up a resume and a portfolio. It won't pay what embedded OS work pays, of course, but if I went freelance it would be a fine supplemental job. I haven't yet decided to commit to it. I'm mulling it over.

Comments

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I have a similar relationship with deadlines. Without them I procrastinate and with them I panic. I suspect you're right that if it were your primary job it would be easier to handle. Good copyediting takes *time*; it's very easy to forget that and try to squeeze it in between laundry and a late evening at work.

I think it's great that you spent that time editing the magazine! It's too bad you couldn't keep it going and stay sane. I wish more people who were naturally good at it would give it a go. After all, there's so much stuff clearly in need! :-)