Oh yeah, and I'm an editor too!

Editing = zen
Photo by ningmilo

When it comes to this blog, writing tends to get a lot more love from me.  Part of the reason for that is because I don't spend lots of time going over each post with a fine-tooth comb, looking for errors.  It's fairly embarrassing to have your errors pointed out to you in a post that's supposed to be about how to avoid errors.  It's a bit more acceptable to have errors pointed out in a post about writing because hey!  I have an editor to take care of that!

Right?

Editing my own work can sometimes be an exercise in frustration.  It's so easy to miss our own errors, isn't it?  When I worked in pharmacy, we had whole staff meetings devoted to this concept.  We see what we expect to see.  It's also why you always want your pharmacy to have someone else double-checking every order that goes through.  While a misplaced apostrophe just looks ugly in a written piece, a misplaced decimal point on a prescription can kill.

On the other hand, editing someone else's work is, to me, a game.  It's fun.  Each little error I find is a small victory.  Yes, I'm one of those people who gets a thrill out of word searches.  I adore logic puzzles.  Portal 2 is probably my favorite video game.  Solving puzzles is fun, and fresh copy, riddled with errors, is a puzzle just waiting to be solved.

When I initially got into the writing/editing game, I thought I was going to be focusing on editing.  My question was, after all, "How do I get paid to read?"  I found a great volunteer gig editing for a nonprofit news site.  My year there has almost come to an end, but I plan to stand on.  Why?  It's fun!  And I'm good at it.  I fill up my proofing form nearly every time, and I find far more errors than the other editors.

I've edited articles for other people, and I want very much to start landing some bigger gigs.  I'm waiting to hear back on the pharmacy technician certification position, but I really hope that comes through.  As fun as writing is, I sometimes find myself stressed out by it.  Editing is a relaxing sort of zen activity for me.  I'd like to do more.