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mammonsbby · 2 years

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R-Read (Hehe! Both indeed.)

After several weeks of maybe-flirting back and forth, Simeon started inviting you over under the guise of needing a proofreader. It’s sort of obvious he doesn’t need a proofreader, as he’s been writing since before you were born, but you’re always more than happy to hang out with him.

So now, as has become normal on Friday evenings, you’re curled up on the couch in his room with a stack of papers. And Simeon is at his desk working on something, humming to himself and occasionally tapping his pen against the tabletop. You stifle a laugh when he accidentally flings his pen towards the wall. Then pretend not to notice the way the muscles in his back move when he bends to reach it.

He’s abandoned his cape and without it, he’s practically shirtless from this angle. Your mouth goes dry.

He’s an angel. He’s an angel. He’s an angel!

You shake your head and bite your lip, then continue to skim the pages in front of you. You annotate here and there, leaving comments on parts that you like. But there’s not much to correct. There never is.

It’s always almost perfect. And the few mistakes you find are always simple, and peppered into otherwise flawless writing. Almost like it’s on purpose. Huh…

You underline something. How could he possibly have misspelled such a common word? Must just be a typo. Wait a sec… Almost all his mistakes are small typos, aren’t they? And this time they’re all short words too. Weird.

You think about it for a moment. Is it possible that he’s doing it on purpose? That he invented a reason to invite you over? You stare at his back, trying incredibly hard to read his mind, but his shoulder blades offer no insight.

You flip back through the pages and start again, scanning for the ‘mistakes’ you’ve already corrected.

Page 1: ‘will’ instead of Will. Page 2: ‘yo’ instead of you. Page 3: ‘goo’ instead of go. Page 4: ‘ouT’ instead of out. And now, page 5, ‘wth’ instead of with.

Your eyes widen at the circled and underline words. Then you frantically flip to the next page, skimming until you find what you’re looking for— ‘ne’ instead of me.

Will you go out with me?

This can’t be a mistake. There’s no way this is a mistake!

Is there?

“Are you asleep, MC?” Simeon asks, turning in his chair.

You jolt at his voice, “Huh? Oh. No. Why?”

“You’ve been pretty quiet. I was worried it was so boring it put you to sleep.” He says with a laugh.

“I…” You start awkwardly. Oh God, if this is a coincidence, you’ll eat his cape. But… still what if it is?

“Yes?” He raises a brow.

You chicken out. “I… have one page left.”

He makes a face, then nods. “All right.”

Simeon turns back around, leaving you to your thoughts. And in less than three minutes, you’re up from your seat. You hand the angel the papers and say goodbye quickly, leaving him confused.

Once you’ve left the room, he starts to flip through his work. Ah… So it turns out you did find everything he wanted you to. Did you not put it all together? He frowns. He was sure you would. But then again, this is the third Friday he’d tried something similar…

Simeon sighs and drops the papers face down on the desk. Maybe he should just ask you directly. It would be simpler, wouldn’t it? He taps his fingers on the desk. Then scrunches his brows when he notices some bright yellow highlighter showing through the back of the paper.

I didn’t put any mistakes on the last page. Well, intentionally anyway. He snatches the page up and flips it over. And the word that you’ve highlighted, and drawn a tiny heart next to, is:

Yes.

Simeon’s eyes widen and he grins. He stands and rushes towards the hallway. Maybe he can catch you!

700 follower prompt list!

#obey me simeon #simeon obey me #simeon x reader #simeon #simeon x mc #obey me #obey me x reader #anon #answered #700 follower party! <3

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twylamprey · 11 months

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teenage gabriel may (+maddy) headcanons

ik maddy would technically be emily here but its just easier for me to refer to her as maddy sorry

ok so basically im having brainrot and im sad that we only saw young gabriel and adult gabriel so here are headcanons for teenage (14-17?) baby eater (in these scenarios maddy still went through the surgery so gabriel no longer has his own "body" and just has his face, he is able to control maddy the same way he does in the movie though)

i dont think this needs any TW but theres one about periods so if that bugs u just dont read the very last one

-assuming the kids at simion were still going through education, he definitely tried to bully maddy into doing his homework for him bc he hated it

-made fun of maddy when she went through the obligatory middle school awkward makeup phase, but secretly wished he could try it too (no face skin, lol rip gabe)

-if they were allowed to listen to music, he would absolutely whine his ass off when maddy listened to girly teen pop and would try to take over the body so he could turn it off (he only likes REAL MUSIC... mcr)

-adding onto the makeup one... he would ask maddie to do makeup looks on herself that he thought would be cool (usually dark/emo makeup)

-obviously watched a lot of movies... hes literally a walking giallo stereotype so he had to learn that somewhere

-maddy offered to cut her hair short at one point if it would make him more comfortable, but he liked having long hair

-the two would both intentionally piss eachother off by taking over the body and putting all their hair back in a super tight ponytail ponytail so the other would have to undo it when they take over

-maddy started doing her nails and gabriel got mad at first... but then he made her come to an agreement where they each had a designated hand they could paint (gabriel's were always black)

-gabriel liked drawing and would draw himself if he had his own body (if he was younger, itd be like a super muscley super hero looking guy lmao)

-gabriel prooobably wouldnt shower because the hot water and soap would absolutely hurt the exposed flesh. so maddy had to do it and therefore, got to choose what soap she used. gabriel would complain and be like "UGH you used the pomegranate soap again?? i told you to use the 46 in 1" (in classic teenage boy fashion)

-REFUSED to control the body when maddy got her first few periods bc he was terrified and didnt believe her that it didnt hurt, but eventually came around lmao (honestly me too)

ok thats all i have for now i didnt proofread so sorry if theres horrible typos i have brainrot goodnight

#slashers #gabriel may #malignant #emily may #horror headcanons #malignant headcanons #horror #slasher headcanons

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cosmic-nightglow · 8 months

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About Us

Polyfragmented/complex DID system

17 years old

They/she/he pronouns collectively

If unsure who is fronting just call us Elyxir

AuDHD

hEDS, POTS

Currently on our SP we have just over 60 parts logged however at the start of the year Juniper decided to make a new SP account and so now we are slowly bringing the parts from the old one to the new one (smart choice Junie made though cause the formatting was a mess) but we know that there is well over 100 probably over 200 even so basically we have shitton of parts but half the time they aren't even logged on PK or SP. Like there are ones who wrote notes and what not but did not log themselves on SP so truly the alter count is fuck this shit there's too many.

We're also introject heavy (yay fiction our only escape from the world for the first 10 years of our life and then yay fifth harmony our next means of escape /s. we all agree on one thing collectively, fifth harmony, we love the girls)

Don't really care for syscourse (we enjoy hearing the different opinions and occasionally may wish to voice ours but don't care too much for it if you get what I'm saying)

Stance on endos: don't really care, they're experience is greatly different to ours, as long as they understand that what they experience is different to what we experience and they don't spread misinformation (intentionally. unintentional misinfo is different and easily spread) we're chill with them cause who knows maybe there is a scientific explanation for them but we don't care that much tbh. We're not gonna go out of or way to get mad at y'all even though sometimes we're like "hmmm is this really a thing?" mostly just as long as endos stay in their space and don't try to invade ours we're chill.

Some parts are more anti-endo than others, some parts are more neutral and some parts may be completely chill with endos, genuinely it completely depends on the part.

We'll trigger tag stuff as TW topic. This will go for vents in general, the ent will be tagged TW vent along with any other potentially triggering topics.

We'll tag any basic triggering topics (if we don't tag one we should just send us a dm or ask to let us know cause we probs didn't realise)

DNI:

Basic DNI

fakeclaimers

honestly really thats it tbh

We'll probably also bitch about shit a lot, mostly drama at school though cause damn does that shit get messy quick and annoying.

Might end up updating this shit with more info later (sorry bout any typos but not really sorry I just don't give enough of a fuck to proofread)

Frequent Fronters below the line

Juniper, 8-15, She/they, Lesbian, Host, Fictional Introject, Part of the Terrorised Stories Subsystem

Augustine, 17, She/they, Lesbian, Host, Fictional Introject

Lauren, 18-27, She/her, Bi, Protector, Soother, Trauma Holder, Factual Introject, Part of Moon Line Subsystem

Camila, 18-26, She/her, Lesbian, Protector, Factual Introject

LJ, 17, She/he/they/mera/lun/leaf, Bi, Soother, Factual Introject

Karla Camila (Karla, KC), 16, She/her, Lesbian, Soother, Factual Introject

And since I'm in front I'll add info about myself despite not being a frequent fronter

Maeve/Finn, Late teens, They/it/vamp/spiri, IDK my sexuality, Persecutor

#complex did #c-did #polyfrag system #did system #traumagenic system #dissociative identity disorder #polyfragmented #polyfrag did #c did #complex ptsd #cptsd #complex dissociative disorder #polyfragmented did #polyfragmented system #cdd #cdid #did #polyfrag

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munku-collar · 3 years

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I would very much appreciate an analysis of the reasoning and song placements for you Macavity playlist whenever you get the opportunity.

- Signed, a big fat music nerd

Putting this guy under a cut cuz it'll be long! I'm just going brief with these but if there's one in particular you want a deeper look at I can def do that. Also I didn't proofread this before posting so i'm sorry for any typos ksjdbgksbdg

Dead Souls- It's a combination of the title and sound for this one. It kind of encapsulates that cool guy vibe that he was born with, that Tugger was born with too. Kind of slow, steady and strong. It covers his general essence, the sort of beat of his heart if you will, and then the lyrics speak to his loneliness as a child and the allure of giving into his worst impulses. He's just lost, looking for support which he unfortunately doesn't find.

How Soon Is Now?- Same idea here. He's left the tribe, he's on his own and every bit of positivity has disappeared. He's hopeless and tired of feeling "other" and not getting what he feels he deserves from those around him so focuses on building an empire instead, exploring crime and taking what he wants, because it won't be given to him. Essentially, he's tired of waiting and tired of trying to make things work at home. "I've already waited too long," if you catch my drift. And "I am human and I need to be loved," is self explanatory: All he wanted was to be accepted for who he was, and that wasn't happening, so he left.

Hungry Like The Wolf- He's hungry. He's hungry for power, for fame, and unbeknownst to him until he lays eyes on Demeter, love. He's ignored that bit for a while now and focused on taking things to fill the void instead, but when he meets her he's just blindsided with this desperation to have her. He's determined, and at this point he is quite a hunter. He knows how to read people, how to break them apart, to get what he wants. She doesn't make it easy. Honestly she makes it a little hard for him to think straight, and always does. He feels like a beast chasing after her, and luckily for him, he catches her.

Candyman- Demeter has fallen for his charms and for the bits of him that are still, whether he admits it or not, Jellicle. She's intrigued by him and has no idea of what she's going to endure by letting herself fall into his arms. And he has no intention of hurting her, never does, but to any bystander it's clear that he's dangerous, and that things won't end well. He can't help his nature, and she can't change it.

Don't Fear The Reaper- Whether he admits it or not, he's a reaper, and she starts to understand that, at least a little, but it doesn't bother her. They come to know each other better, shared their experiences and pain and believe they're a true match. They've been hurt and lonely and turn from strangers to "us against the world," or and naively think that they'll always be together. He hasn't fallen yet, but he will.

The Same Deep Water As You- He is at his core, really a sad figure. He thought Demeter would fill the void, and she does fill some of it, but not all, and in the quiet hours of the night between heists and fights and celebrations of his power, he crumbles in her arms and clings to her. But they're both starting to realize that maybe it's not for the best. Maybe they're not what each other really needs, and he hates that idea. It's her, or nothing, he thinks. He'll be damned if he lets her go.

The Killing Moon- This is really the shift. He's killed others now, and finds more joy in violence than anything, excepting Demeter's company. It's a kind of latent realization on Demeter's part of what she's gotten herself into, and how nothing she could have done would've let her avoid any of this. She's disgusted, and somewhat terrified, but knows that he won't let her go, and she still loves him despite it all. It's a cruel twist of fate. He's determined to keep her, reminiscing on their meeting and how he fell in love with her. Honestly the memory of it is sweeter than being with her now, and it's killing them both.

The Promise- She keeps distancing herself from him, and he keeps trying to get closer. He's given her so many promises, but at this point, they don't matter anymore. It's really upsetting, to see what they've become, and part of him knows it's his fault. He feels guilty for it, but he can't stop doing what he does, because he doesn't know how. Who is he without power, without bending others to heel? A scared, damaged tom, and that's worse than anything. He can't face his own reflection in the mirror, and that's his, and their, downfall.

Monsters- He's angry at her, she's angry at him, though they won't show it to each other. But he's not an idiot. He can see how her soft gazes have turned hard, how she doesn't lean into his touch anymore, and she watches him grow more violent day by day, until he well and truly is a monster. His frustration at her turns into frustration at everyone else, and finding new ways to be cruel to his enemies, and even his subordinates, is the only way he can redirect the pain it's causing him. But they're still hanging on by a thread. She's too scared to leave, and he's scared of her leaving. But there's no saving it, even if she cares about him and always will.

Vantablack- His romantic gestures used to delight her, comfort her, but now any attempt from him just makes her feel dread. It absolutely ruins him that she's not comfortable with him anymore, and when he tries to make things like they were, it's useless. He's let too much darkness consume him, and he can't hold on to her anymore. It makes him insanely angry, and he lashes out at others twice as hard as a result. He blames her for it all too, when she runs away, and leaves him all alone.

Not Just A Name- He really thought she was his match, that she was the one cat who understood him and wouldn't let him down. She made him believe that things could be good, that he could find happiness, but he didn't realize just how much of himself he would have to change for that to happen. He refused to change, couldn't bring himself to, and instead surrendered to his worst impulses, and now she's run from him. He wasn't who she thought he was, and she clearly didn't know him as well as he thought she did, and quite frankly, he's just hurt. (Even if it was all his fault, he doesn't see it that way.) "Made me someone I wasn't, it's not just a name." He didn't, and can't, meet her expectations, or be what she needs, and that might be the only thing he's ever experienced that really breaks his heart. And she won't ever give him another chance.

The Less I Know The Better- He tells himself he doesn't need her, that he doesn't want her back. He tells himself he couldn't care less if she rots out there on the streets without him, but really, he still cares. He still wants her. He's haunted by her absence, and wants nothing more than her at his side again. She really was the last tie to his humanity, his morality, and he's lost without her. He'll beg for her, if he has to. He needs her back, but she's moved on, and ironically, was pushed into his brother's arms.

Loner- He constantly flips between thinking of stealing Demeter back or burning everything to the ground. He steals and fights and commits crimes just because he can, just because there's nothing else to do, or feel, without her. He's entirely closed off. When she was there, one of his henchcats could sometimes ask him questions or have somewhat easy conversation with him, but nowadays that's an impossibility. He has completely put on a mask and only barks out orders, reprimands, or toys with others to pass the time. He's just this angry, lonely figure. He hardly feels like a person at this point. Without Demeter, he has no direction, and no connections.

Gimme Shelter- The more time passes, and the more he realizes he can't get Demeter back, the worse he gets. He's intentionally nefarious at this point, and hateful. He resents her too, even though he still loves her. If he ever gets his paws on her, he isn't sure if he'll caress her or choke her. It's a bitter, cruel world, he has remembered, and the only way to survive it is to be crueler than everyone else around you.

I'm So Afraid- He truly feels as if he's been alone his entire life, and loneliness is the root of his problems. He felt lonely and misunderstood as a child, driven away. He feels lonely without Demeter, without her love. Really, if he tried hard enough, he could come back from his darkness, maybe try to find a new life, repent for his mistakes, but he's too scared. He's afraid of losing himself, knows he already has, honestly, and there's nothing to do about it. Macavity is big and strong and clever and intelligent but underneath all that he's always just been terrified of emotions, of abandonment, and of himself, and whatever bits of him that are Jellicle, burried deep down, are disappointed, and it kills him. He hates that he still has those feelings, and wants to drown them, or lock them away forever. He'd rather feel emptiness than any of this anymore.

Lord Of This World- At this point his name is beyond infamous. No one remembers the more tender parts of him, and no one relates to him. He's been branded a villain, by everyone, and so assumes the role with a sick sense of pride. He knows he's not to blame for how he is, no matter what the others say, and won't let them judge him. He's in charge. He is a stronger, better leader than his old tribe could ever have, and this is his world. He bears that burden alone, but believes it was always his to bear, just like it was his burden to fall in love with Demeter and endure so much suffering for her kiss on his lips.

Double Dare- He invites his old tribe and in fact everyone around him to self reflect. They're not blameless, they're not better than him, and they're not as strong as him. They haven't survived what he has, haven't built something from nothing, haven't overcome his odds. He thinks everyone around him is weak, even Demeter, for not sticking by him He's angry at her for being with the Jellicles, and believes they've killed the stronger bits in her, the twinge of darkness that she also had, and allowed them to be miserable together. He won't be fooled, won't be changed, even at the cost of her, now. Either she'll be brave enough to come back to him, like he believes she should, because she was made for him, or he is truly the only brave cat in the world. And if that's the case? Then so be it.

-------

So yeah. This man is fucking delusional. Yes, he had a rough start to life, but it was his own arrogance and fear that prevented him from becoming a better person or adjusting. He turned to dark coping mechanisms instead, and ended up ruining the only positive relationship he's ever formed for the sake of remaining comfortable. If he wasn't so frightened of judgment and change, things could have gone very differently. But nope. Now he's hated by everyone, including the object of his affections, and he'll be sitting alone atop the cold throne he built for the rest of his life. He's really just driven by impulse and desire, despite his masterful approach to crime. It's an interesting juxtaposition. Someone so powerful and intelligent is really just constantly pushed and pulled by his emotions. He's one second from spiraling out of control at all times, and that's what makes him really dangerous more than anything.

#my shit #asks #macavity #demecavity #cats 1998 #cats the musical #demeter #cats demeter #demeter cats #macavity the mystery cat

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amazonauthorinsights-live · 7 years

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A conversation with my copyeditor

By Edan Lepucki

An in-depth look at a copyeditor’s process

I’ve fallen in love with my copyeditor, Susan Bradanini Betz. Not only did she find all the mantle/mantel homonym errors in my novel manuscript, but she also helped me with my commas and discovered a couple of embarrassing inconsistencies. (“First she had a briefcase,” one of her notes reads. “Now it’s a suitcase.”) She is both respectful of style and sharp as knives about grammar. Also, she said she’d read a sequel to my book—if not a whole series!—so of course I love her.

I’ve always been curious about a copyeditor’s process, and Susan was kind enough to answer a few questions of mine. Susan has been in the publishing business for, as she puts it, a zillion years. She’s worked in-house as both a copyeditor and an acquisitions editor and currently freelances, mostly for Knopf and Soho Press. She recently started working with Little, Brown again, which was one of her main clients in the 1980s and 1990s. She lives in Chicago.

The Millions: You have worked in book publishing for years, not only as a copyeditor but also as an in-house editor doing acquisitions and all that. You told me copyediting is your favorite of these jobs. Why?

Susan Bradanini Betz: When I copyedit, I get closer to the manuscript than I was ever able to as an acquisitions editor. I read every single word, looking at each word and tracking the syntax, not skimming over sentences. It’s not my job as a copyeditor to suggest big-picture changes or comment on quality, so I am focused on the story and the language at the word and sentence levels. I keep the reader in mind and try to anticipate what might be confusing or problematic; I check facts and dates and track characters and events for consistency; and I do the most thorough read I possibly can, coming away with an in-depth understanding of the work that wasn’t possible for me in acquisitions.

As a freelance copyeditor, I work for publishers who expect me to do a thorough job. And when I find an error in a novel’s chronology or an incorrect date in a nonfiction book, I feel that is as important to the integrity of the book as when I used to suggest switching chapters around.

TM: What are the copyeditor’s particular pleasures and challenges?

SBB: I love being able to read a manuscript closely, word by word, or even—when something is particularly dense—syllable by syllable. (Yes, I have done that.) The main challenge, other than the usual one of balancing deadlines with quality, is making a sustainable living as a freelance copyeditor.

TM: Can you describe how you go about copyediting a manuscript? What’s your reading process like? How in the hell do you manage to catch the smallest of errors?

SBB: Ideally, I’d have time to read through every manuscript twice: once to mark everything and once just to read and find whatever I missed the first time through. But the schedules don’t allow for that. Plus, I usually end up reading each sentence multiple times anyway.

So when I get a manuscript, I just start right in on page 1. I don’t page through or skim the manuscript first, because I want to be aware of the evolution of the story and the order in which information is presented. That way, if some detail important to the reader’s understanding was inadvertently dropped in the author’s revision process, I’m more likely to catch it.

I usually read the first sixty to a hundred pages without marking anything but the most cut-and-dried items—serial commas, typos, backward quotation marks, those sorts of things. I start my style sheets right away on page 1, keeping track of the author’s existing style for thoughts, words, dialogue, and so on and noting what seems intentional and what seems unintentional.

Once I’m familiar with the author’s style and voice, which usually happens around page sixty, I begin making copyediting changes that I hope are consistent with the author’s intent and the publisher’s expectations. I query a lot rather than changing a lot. When I reach the end of the manuscript, I go back and copyedit those first sixty pages.

Creating style sheets is the secret to catching small errors. I am obsessed with my style sheets. I keep a word list, a character list, a list of places (fictional and real), a chronology, a general style sheet, a list of hyphenated modifiers, and any other list that helps me keep track of everything. I usually fact-check as I go, although when I’m pressed for time, I make a list of items to look up later, sometimes after I’ve returned the manuscript to the publisher. In those cases, I send a list of corrections that can be added by the production editor to the first pass. (Ha-ha, if someone else wrote this paragraph, I’d query the repeat of “list”—I used it seven times in five sentences.)

Because I read slowly, I also remember odd little details that provide a strong visual image, and so as I read along, if my visual image is jarred by a description, I’ll backtrack to figure out whether there’s some inconsistency. I remember more details about characters in novels I’ve copyedited than I remember from my own life.

TM: Can you turn off your copyediting mind when you’re reading for pleasure?

SBB: No, I can’t turn it off, but believe it or not, that mind-set makes pleasure reading more pleasurable for me. When reading for pleasure, I don’t read as slowly as when I copyedit, but I am not a fast reader. Often I will read a sentence more than once, then flip back and forth, comparing it with other sentences, just as I do when copyediting. I think I’ve always read like a copyeditor, even way back before I knew what a copyeditor was. One of my favorite authors is Proust, and when I was young, I would read some of his sentences over and over, trying to make sure I understood how every word related to the other words and just to make sure I understood what he was saying.

TM: So I guess it’s possible to have fun reading while you’re copyediting…

SBB: Yes! I have fun reading nearly all the manuscripts that come to me—maybe all. I think of my job as publishers setting up an amazing reading list for me.

I try not to read ahead of my editing, but sometimes it’s impossible not to because I’m so caught up in the story. Many things can be noticed only when you are reading slowly and reading something for the first time. If I read ahead, I have to go back and reread everything at a copyediting pace. But because I already know what’s going to happen, I might make assumptions that don’t take into account the reader’s limited information at that point in the story.

TM: In a conversation between Michael Pietsch and Donna Tartt that ran in Slate, Pietsch quoted from the letter Tartt sent to her copyeditor for The Goldfinch:

I am terribly troubled by the ever-growing tendency to standardized and prescriptive usage, and I think that the Twentieth century, American-invented conventions of House Rules and House Style, to say nothing of automatic computer functions like Spellcheck and AutoCorrect, have exacted an abrasive, narrowing, and destructive effect on the way writers use language and ultimately on the language itself. Journalism and newspaper writing are one thing; House Style indubitably very valuable there; but as a literary novelist who writes by hand, in a notebook, I want to be able to use language for texture and I’ve intentionally employed a looser, pre-twentieth century model rather than running my work through any one House Style mill.

What are your thoughts on Tartt’s argument? (And were you the copyeditor to receive this note?!)

SBB: Yikes—no, fortunately, I wasn’t the copyeditor to receive that note. But often, when an author has that kind of reaction, it’s a result of misunderstanding. Most copyeditors don’t want to alter anything in a manuscript that the author has done on purpose.

The house style is set by the publisher, and copyeditors generally receive a manuscript without any guidelines other than to follow the house style for that publisher. And “house style” doesn’t refer to writing style but refers to mechanics such as capitalization, hyphenation, spelling (most often the house dictionary is Webster’s Eleventh), and so on. In addition, copyeditors watch for dangling modifiers, subject-verb and antecedent-pronoun agreement, repeating words, chronology, and consistent names and dates, among other things. And they are expected minimally to verify dates, proper nouns (personal names, place-names, streets and highways, institutions, etc.), foreign words, brand names, and slogans or advertisements—really, to verify as much as possible within the allotted time. Add to that that freelancers have no benefits and work for an hourly rate, so getting continual work from a publisher is important. What all that means is that the copyeditor is pressed for time and is unlikely to go against house style unless instructed to do so, for fear that the publisher will think she just doesn’t know how to copyedit.

Copyeditors are always guessing at the author’s intentionality, and a copyeditor who assumes everything the author has done is inadvertent does come off as a harsh schoolmarm. For example, in the note, the author writes, “Twentieth century, American-invented conventions.” A copyeditor would revise that as “twentieth-century, American-invented conventions,” assuming that the cap T in “Twentieth” was a typo and the inconsistent hyphenation of compound modifiers was an oversight. However, “House Style,” which is not a proper noun, is capped three times in one paragraph. For me, that would be a signal that the author might have a personal cap style that I shouldn’t mess with. So I’d probably query the author about her intentionality regarding caps, calling out the occurrences so she can double-check that everything is as she wants it. If the copyeditor doesn’t at least call out the nonstandard style with a query, someone will do it later—either the production editor or the proofreader or even someone in publicity. And if the issue is raised after typesetting, the publisher is perfectly justified in asking why the copyeditor hadn’t settled that question earlier.

But that said, as an acquisitions editor, I saw copyeditors make all sorts of unjustified changes. And when I was acquiring poetry and fiction, I would sometimes lose it myself when I saw what copyeditors would do. I once had a copyeditor rewrite the last paragraph in a novel, which made the author (and me) go ballistic. The final paragraph! As if the author hadn’t given it considerable thought.

And sometimes a copyeditor is just mismatched to a project. Last year a publisher asked me to do a second copyedit on a memoir that had been thoroughly (way too thoroughly) copyedited already. The first copyeditor had changed so much that the author became paralyzed about a third of the way through his review of the copyeditor’s changes. According to what the publisher told me, and from what I could tell from the author’s comments on the copyeditor’s comments, he not only felt the copyeditor didn’t understand his work, but he started doubting his own choices. When I looked at the first copyedit, I understood the reasons behind nearly all her changes, but I also saw that she clearly did not get this author’s humor or his unique voice, which often involved nonstandard syntax. She had done a ton of work recasting passive sentences and paring down “awkward” (and by “awkward” I mean “hilarious”) sentences. And in many places he had agreed to a change that, honestly, purged all the humor and personality from a passage. So then I would query whether it was OK to reinstate his original, as it was better than the copyedited version. That was a case of a complete mismatch.

TM: Is there a tension between what you know to be “correct” and the artistic license of the writer? How do you handle that tension?

SBB: I see my job as a copyeditor as less about enforcing rules than about making sure the author is aware of anything in the manuscript that is nonstandard and confirming that any variations from standard grammar and punctuation are intentional. In my queries, I try to get across the idea that just because I’m asking a question doesn’t mean that something needs to be changed. As you know, I often qualify my questions by saying something like “just checking” or “it might be just me” or “not really necessary to change.” Especially with poetry, I love when an author responds with “yes, that is intentional,” because it means he or she truly thought through the style, so I don’t have to be so OCD about it.

TM: Have you noticed any new style and grammar trends in the last five years?

SBB: New copyediting trends generally pop up after a new edition of The Chicago Manual of Style is published, and the sixteenth edition came out in 2010. New guidelines in CMoS cause publishers to reevaluate their current house styles, because they have to decide what changes they will incorporate from the new edition. These are changes like what to do about capping a generic geographic noun when it follows more than one proper noun—so is it “Illinois and Chicago rivers” or “Illinois and Chicago Rivers”? The style has changed back and forth over the last editions of CMoS, but it’s something really only copyeditors get excited about.

For informative and entertaining updates on the state of copyediting, I keep up with Washington Post copyeditor Bill Walsh’s Twitter feed.

Just anecdotally, in the manuscripts I receive, I’ve noticed a lot of two-word proper nouns closed up (like SpongeBob), a result of tech product names, I guess. So when an author creates a fictional product or company now, it’s often one word made up of two.

I’ve noticed, too, that a lot of authors are omitting the word “that” and putting a comma in its place in dialogue or first-person narratives in fiction. I think that’s because many throwaway phrases currently used in conversation omit “that,” and the speaker pauses—for example, “I mean, I had a really good time at the party.” Almost every novel I’ve worked on in the past few years had at least one “I mean…” in dialogue. And in just about every conversation I have in real life, someone uses the phrase. But the comma for an omitted “that” happens with other constructions too, as in “She was so late, she missed the show” rather than “She was so late she missed the show” or “She was so late that she missed the show.”

TM: What are your favorite errors to fix?

SBB: I love to find errors that are important to the accuracy or quality of the manuscript, because then I feel as if my copyediting is contributing something more than tiny details—for example, a character being described as not having visitation with his kids but later taking them somewhere on “his” weekend, or someone beginning a scene sitting on a couch and then rising from a chair, or a character drinking a shot of whiskey but getting a refill on her red wine. Those are errors that usually result from the author’s revisions and multiple drafts, and they can slip past easily. I also like to catch dangling modifiers, because we all miss those, so it means I’m paying attention. I never change any of these, though, without querying, and most often I will just call them out to the author with a query. And yes, I have had authors who say that dangling modifiers are part of their style and don’t want to change them.

TM: I am proud that you said my manuscript was “clean,” but I was also appalled by my misuse of the comma! Can you provide three rules for comma use to put in my back pocket for the next book?

SBB: It isn’t so much that commas are misused as that authors often don’t realize their phrasing is effective enough to make the addition of nonstandard commas unnecessary. A comma isn’t always needed to make the reader catch a pause in dialogue or narrative; often the syntax does that just fine, and an unnecessary comma slows the reader down too much.

So in addition to the serial comma (“I adopted a lab mix, a poodle, and a Lhasa mix”), here are the three commas that I think work best when handled per standard punctuation style:

1. Avoid a comma between elements of a series connected by conjunctions.

I adopted a lab mix and a poodle and a Lhasa mix.

2. Add a comma between independent clauses connected by a conjunction unless each clause is short, especially if the conjunction is “but.”

I used to foster dogs, but I had to stop after I adopted Frank.

3. Avoid using a comma between compound predicates or objects.

I brought Frank home as a foster dog and just couldn’t return him to the shelter.

I’ve had many dogs but never bought a puppy from a pet store.

I feed my dogs kibble and homemade treats.

4. And a bonus tip: Always add a comma after a phrase or clause ending in a preposition to avoid “reading on.”

After I put my coat on, the dogs knew it was time to go out. (Even “After I put on my coat, the dogs knew it was time to go out” reads better with the comma, though there’s no chance of reading on.)

A version of this article originally appeared on The Millions.

Edan Lepucki

Edan Lepucki is a staff writer and contributing editor for The Millions. She is the author of the novella If You’re Not Yet like Me, the New York Times best-selling novel California, and Woman No. 17, which was published in spring 2017.

#write #editing #copyediting

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ber39james · 7 years

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17 Email Etiquette Rules to Know and Practice

Since the early days of AOL (“You’ve got mail!”), I’ve spent countless hours in the email trenches working in jobs that ranged from customer service rep to online community manager to managing editor to PR representative. I’ve done the math, and even estimating at an ultra-conservative ten emails per day over twenty years, I’ve sent at least 73,000 emails. Those experiences, both good and bad, taught me what to do and what not to do. These days I’m an expert emailer who’s sent bulk email campaigns with 55 percent response rates. (In case you’re wondering, that’s pretty darn good.)

In my experience, there are five email etiquette breaches so egregious that they belong in the Bad Email Hall of Shame category. Let’s start with them.

The Five Worst Email Etiquette Blunders

Email faux pas—we’ve all made them. Sometimes we’re aware a split second after we hit Send and shout “No!” wishing we could take it back.

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Here’s a tip: If you’re a Gmail user, you can take it back. Here’s how.

Here are email etiquette’s most flagrant fouls.

1 Using CC for mass emails

When I worked as a video game journalist, there was a public relations rep who became infamous for sending a PR email to a huge list of journalists using CC, which revealed every one of those journalist’s carefully guarded email addresses. The journalists then gleefully used Reply All to host a threaded conversation mercilessly taunting him.

Don’t use CC for mass emails. Trust me. You really don’t need that kind of notoriety.

Here’s a tip: If you regularly need to send bulk email, use a bulk email platform like MailChimp or Constant Contact.

2 Hitting Reply All when you should hit Reply

Reply All is a handy feature when there are more than two people who need to be involved in a conversation, but be careful. I was involved in a group email where one member replied, thinking she was emailing only me, to admit she had a crush on another member of the email group. She accidentally used Reply All. In this case, the subject of the crush was flattered. But . . . your accidental Reply All may not result in a fairytale ending.

3 Assuming email is private and confidential

Anything you write in an email can be shared, whether intentionally or accidentally. (See above.) Don’t say things in an email, especially in the office, that you wouldn’t say publicly. And especially don’t write anything that could come back to haunt you. Emails may even be admissible in court.

4 Emailing when angry

Sometimes you just want to tell someone off. We’ve all been there. And it can be much easier to put those feelings in writing rather than have a difficult face-to-face conversation. But resist the urge. Angry emails raise the recipient’s defenses, and that’s not productive.

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If you must write an angry email, either don’t add a recipient in the To: field or write it in your word processor, where you won’t be tempted to hit Send. Then let the draft sit for twenty-four hours. Odds are good you’ll have calmed down when you come back, and you’ll be able to offer clear-headed feedback rather than blistering invective.

5 Not getting to the point

I don’t know how many times I’ve read a rambling email only to wind up thinking, “Okay, but what does this person want from me?” For the love of all things electronic, don’t use email as a means to do a brain dump. Instead, do your brainstorming before you write the email. Then, decide what your objective is—what are you hoping will happen as the result of sending this email? Write a brief, clear message with that in mind. If the goal of your email is to persuade, style it as an elevator pitch.

Twelve Must-Use Email Etiquette Tips

Now that we’ve addressed email’s most outrageous offenses, let’s look at some guidelines for email etiquette that will always leave you looking like a polished pro.

1 Use a descriptive subject line

Save your cultivated air of mystery for vaguebooking on Facebook. (Okay, you shouldn’t really be doing that either.) Assume everyone you write to has a flooded inbox, and use your subject line to describe the contents of your email so the recipient will know right up front why your email should be a priority.

2 Don’t type in all caps

In Internet terms, typing in all caps looks like shouting. Need further incentive to lay off the caps lock? You may trigger spam filters.

3 Lay off the exclamation points

I know you’re excited! Seriously!!! But you can convey excitement without exclamation points. (Golly gee! Save those for when you’re really exclaiming.) Exclamation point mania is another spam filter trigger, so use them sparingly and never, ever two or more at the end of a sentence. Unless you’re a preteen. Then have at it.

4 Keep it simple

The ideal email is brief and gets directly to the point. Write emails like that and everyone will love you and you’ll be super popular. (Okay, maybe not. But at least no one will complain about your annoying email habits.) If your message is complex, with lots of moving parts, consider writing a detailed brief and attaching it as a Google Doc or pdf. But . . .

5 Ask before you send attachments

These days, we’re all wary about opening email attachments, even from known sources. And we have good reason to be. If you must send an attachment, give the recipient a heads-up to let them know it’s coming.

6 Use the auto-responder sparingly

Vacation auto-responders are fine. (Just don’t forget to either have them turn off “automagically” or turn them off manually when you get back to the office.) But auto-responders saying things like “Hey, I got your email. I’ll get back to you soon!” are pointless. They might also let spammers know they’ve reached a valid email address—double trouble!

7 Use professional-sounding greetings

Unless you know the recipient very well, and this is a style you’re both accustomed to, don’t begin professional emails with greetings like “hey” or “yo.” “Hello” or “hi” are usually fine. Use “dear” in formal business correspondence.

8 Use professional-sounding sign-offs

Keep it classy. Here are some best practices.

9 Use humor with caution

A well-timed bit of humor can make an email memorable. It can also sink it like the Titanic. You may think you’ve served up a clever quip, but your wit could be lost in translation. Save the funny stuff for people you know well—they get you.

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10 Don’t be annoying with follow-ups

Avoid sending a barrage of follow-up emails. If a contact isn’t responding and you really need a response, consider making a phone call if that’s possible. In all other matters, if your carefully crafted follow-up doesn’t get a response after one or two tries, assume the recipient isn’t interested.

11 Be careful what you forward

There are cases when it’s fine to forward an email—if the sender reached the wrong contact or you need to add someone to the conversation, for example. But don’t forward sensitive or confidential emails. If you have any doubt that the sender would want the conversation shared, ask permission before you bring someone else into the loop.

12 Proofread

In a Grammarly poll, 67 percent responded that typos in work emails are a no-no. To avoid looking like you lack attention to detail, proofread thoroughly before you hit Send. No one ever regretted spending a little extra time polishing their writing.

Have you made any embarrassing email faux pas? Do you have any email etiquette gripes? Share a comment below.

The post 17 Email Etiquette Rules to Know and Practice appeared first on Grammarly Blog.

from Grammarly Blog https://www.grammarly.com/blog/email-etiquette-rules-to-know/

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