Too Much Editing--No Time for Blogging

So, as it turns out, I'm really not cut out for this whole blogging thing, unless semi-annual posts are acceptable. As of late, I barely have time to think, let alone write blog posts...

I've deeply immersed myself into a world of insanity-- commuting, working, editing. Any time left over is then dedicated to homework or a few hours of sleep. In fact, I found this week that I now edit stories in my sleep, which doesn't equate to a restful night. In my dreams, I find myself reading newspaper and magazine articles, finding grammatical errors and rewording awkward phrases. In fact, I think I came up with some pretty great edits the other night, but I forgot about them when I woke up.

For those who are unfamiliar with the world of editing, mine works like this. For the newspaper, all of the stories for the next day are sitting in a folder in the computer. I go through them one by one, along with a couple other editors. On the most basic level I check for misspellings and grammatical mistakes. I then fact check every name, statistic and fact in the story. After which, I cut out needless words, rewrite awkward passages, etc., etc. It's almost the same with the magazine I work for, but I have a bit more time on each story, and I'm the only official copy editor reading it, so I'm a bit more thorough. Discussions with fellow copy editors may include the following topics: spelling "adviser" with an "e" instead of an "o," "vice president" is not hyphenated, whether or not the term "honky" is offensive, "spokeswoman" or "spokesman" is always preferred over "spokesperson." I realize these things seem boring, but I spend hours each day poring over stories, looking for these things, asking myself these exact questions.

Which is also the reason I've decided that editing is the perfect career for know-it-alls. You not only have to know everything about language usage, you have to know about the topics you're reading so you can catch factual errors. In editing different stories, I've learned about the tallest trees in Utah, the tallest trees in the world, the Spiral Jetty in the Great Salt Lake, the Utah Symphony's upcoming season, just to name a few. So give me a few years, and I think I will be completely unbeatable in games like Trivial Pursuit and Scrabble. Although I have to admit that I'm already pretty good at both :)