“I assure you my attention to detail will be back on track fro Monday.”
Yep, this was exactly what I sent my writer-in-chief after being blasted for my lack of attention to detail over the past few days.
Unfortunately, I also lack an editor for my emails as well as for the news reports I churn out. The platitude “you’re your own worst critic” doesn’t ring true in my case. I read my articles and think, “That’s fantastic! No changes needed!” [No, that’s not true – I don’t actually read my articles after the first draft.]
Seriously, I do go over my articles with a fine-toothed comb, especially to check content accuracy. I take everything except my food with a heavy dose of salt, especially when dealing with media releases from government agencies [you can't trust 'em] – skepticism is one of my super powers.
Sadly, attention to detail is not. My eye is not so refined within my own writing to pick out the space that shouldn’t be there between the number and the hyphen or the space that should be there between the parenthesis and the quotation mark. I’m concentrating too much on my voices in my head, the message, the accuracy, my egotistical assurance that everything is correct.
Our team of writers does not have editors to review their work. That is a major downfall. While you are your own worst critic, it is very difficult to edit your own work. You are seeing the same words, you subconsciously skip over actual phrases since you know what it says ‘The yada yada council approved the yada yada law’, and you do not have a fresh pair of eyes [and with my -6.75 eyesight, my eyes are anything but pop n’ fresh].
While writing my books, and prior to my news writer day job, I earned a crust as an editor. In that time, this is what I learned about editing: writers possess little ability and interest in doing so.
Editing is a skill, writing is a skill. Even if you posses both, their combination is like a liger – two strong elements equalling a weaker and infertile offspring. Best to leave these as two separate skill sets to gain maximum benefit out of both.
The morale of da storey: Keira wans and needs a editor!
Wa? You want BOTH skills?
7 comments
bare says:
July 31, 2010 at 6:36 pm (UTC -5 )
yeah. so true.
(of course, if i can ever help….)
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Keira says:
August 1, 2010 at 1:00 am (UTC -5 )
Thanks for the offer, Bare! I will hit you up on that..
And you know the importance of having someone cast an eye over your work.
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John Knight says:
August 6, 2010 at 5:37 pm (UTC -5 )
As Sean Connery said in Finding Forrester, the best part is when you’ve finished your first draft, before those (b-word)s have wittled it down. I’ve got a mate who’s got more of a mathematical brain, he’s a rubbish writer, but he’s a really good editor (I guess he views sentences from a mechanics standpoint). If I’m sending something into a new publisher, I get him to look over my work. I do think writing and editing are skills from two different brains.
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Keira says:
August 10, 2010 at 9:33 am (UTC -5 )
And great minds think alike, John! I’m glad you agree. As we all know, unbias and objectivity is important in news reports, these need to be implemented when editing any piece of writing, and let’s face it, writers of the pieces will be bias and subjective!
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bare says:
August 9, 2010 at 11:33 pm (UTC -5 )
where’s the cts post?
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Keira says:
August 10, 2010 at 9:31 am (UTC -5 )
What does ‘cts’ mean?
Computer Transition Systems?
Carpel Tunnel Syndrome?
Chinese Travel Service?
Crane Technical Services?
Combined Team Services?
Chasing the Sun?
I missed last week’s post. Will follow up for Wednesday perhaps…
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Keira says:
August 10, 2010 at 12:27 pm (UTC -5 )
Oh, City to Surf!
I have to relate SOME things to writing though…
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