You might be a copy editor if . . .
Our upcoming Beginning Copyediting for Fiction class will educate anyone wanting to fix the errors seen on a daily basis in the real world!
Over the past week or so, I’ve caught the following typos and grammatical awkwardness in major news media:
USA Today: “publically released”
USA Today: “could cause driver’s to crash”
USA Today: “exasperating the problem” (should be “exacerbating the problem”)
Yahoo Entertainment: “Affleck has three children with whom Lopez has become the stepmother to.”
People: “A college student is dead after falling to his death.”
CNN: “Crossed first paths”
ABC News: “preventing recruiters from meting with students”
If you, like me, have a tendency to spot errors like this, then you, too, are either a copy editor or could be one.
Tips for Editors & Writers
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Coaching and Editing Discovery Drafts
Discovery drafts are typically the first draft of a novel that an author uses to explore the story they’re writing, whether the story has been prompted by a situation, a setting, a character, or a theme. The discovery draft typically includes stops and starts, directions the story could take but doesn’t, characters that fade in…
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Editing for Character Development
When you’re editing for character development, keep in mind that even small changes have ripple effects throughout the entire manuscript. So any changes you suggest need to be important, or else you’re asking the author to do a lot of work for little reward. For example, sometimes I’ll see editors suggest things like, “Hey, you…
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Editing for Character Consistency
Because writing a novel manuscript takes place over a long period of time, character inconsistencies can crop up. Maybe in Chapter 1 the author says that Joe has never been in trouble with the law but in Chapter 12 he has a history as a felon. As the editor it can sometimes seem puzzling to…
