Copy editors are weird

How weird am I?

Photo by Alexandra on Unsplash

No, maybe don’t answer that question until you’ve heard why I ask it. Then you can judge.

If you’ve been following along, you know I’m looking for a job. A remote editing job, specifically. But I’m also applying for copy writing jobs. They are more plentiful but most are freelance and don’t pay as much.

I’m doing a little copy writing, and it’s OK, but I really want to edit.

When I was still at Hilltop, I had a chance one day to edit a letter or document – I don’t recall exactly what it was – but I was so pleased. I even remarked to my boss that I was excited to be able to edit something, and I was looking forward to getting back into editing full time. She thought it was funny that I was excited about editing a page of copy.

There’s something about finding the little mistakes, the things that could be better; or the big mistakes, the things that need to be totally rewritten because there’s no saving it. It’s going line by line to tighten things up. It’s looking for just the right word. It’s going back again to be sure you’ve got everything and finding something else you can tweak.

And it’s doing it all on deadline.

I never copy edited off deadline. Sure, there were times you’d get copy in a day in advance. That was nice, when you’d have time to look at a story and then come back hours or even a day later for a final edit. That’s when you can really shine.

But often, I was editing to get something on the page or online. You do what you can with the time you’ve got. And you hope you haven’t left any glaring errors behind.

That’s not the weird part, though, although if you’re not a word person, that’s probably pretty weird.

No, the weird part is what I did today.

I applied for my self-required one job per day. I worked on my website and wrote a long blog post about the apostrophe. I worked on my resume, again. I uploaded my website onto job sites where I’d previously put my resume, etc. I helped my sister move some furniture. It was late afternoon, when I felt I’d probably had enough. It was after 4 p.m. when I went downstairs to put squash in the over for dinner and get some tea.

I also had sent an email to someone I talked to about a short-term editing job, just following up. By the time I cam back upstairs after 4:30 p.m., she had replied. She thanked me for the reminder and sent me a link to a copy-editing test. She suggested reading the instructions carefully and keeping them in mind while doing the test. I was to mark down my start and end times, and it was supposed to be an hour. She suggested, however, that she would rather have someone go over than rush through it.

At nearly 5 p.m. on a Friday is not a great time to edit copy nor take a copy-editing test. I considered waiting until morning, when I was fresh.

And yet, how often had I had to edit copy at the newspaper that came in on a Friday? Newsmakers tend to think if they wait until Friday afternoon to release information that the media will miss it or already be gone for the weekend. I had to edit some big stories on Friday afternoons during my career.

You just do what you have to do.

So, I opened the document, wrote down my start time and took the test.

I wrapped up an hour and 9 minutes later. I allowed myself a few minutes at the end to go back over it again – just to be sure.

It was a bit frustrating. I had to mark what I added in yellow and strike through what I took out. Just highlighting and figuring out the keyboard shortcut for strike through took me a minute, since it wasn't one of the visible options. Normally when you edit, you don’t need to mark what you’ve done. You just go ahead and fix it.

I had to check facts, links, dates, spellings, photo credits and images. I had to rewrite for active voice and to tighten it up. It was challenging. By the time I was done, I easily had 30 tabs open in my browser in case I needed them again.

It was stressful, but I loved it.

I loved being with the words, considering them, turning them around, rephrasing them, making them better. Adding, subtracting. Correcting, improving.

It was a copy-editing test unlike any I’ve had before. I’m sure I won’t have one exactly like it again, because it was designed specifically for this job.

But it was like old times. I was on deadline, feeling the pressure to get through it quickly but as thoroughly as possible.

Gosh, I miss copy editing. I really want a remote copy-editing job. The world needs more copy editors. With all those copy writers out there, they need good editors.

So that’s how weird I am. I willingly took a copy-editing test late on a Friday, and I loved it. Now you can judge.