Editorial Road Rage

You know the feeling: some jerk behind you hammers the horn and flips you off while you wait for the light, even though the sign says “No Turns on Red”; that feeling when someone tailgates, or cuts you off, or won’t let you merge—or won’t accept your editing.

In The Subversive Copy Editor, I wrote about telling my son John that I didn’t think I was cut out to be a copyeditor because I got too upset when an author disagreed with me. When I added that unfortunately I couldn’t think of any other job I was more suited for, he answered, “Maybe you could be a terrorist.”

I’m pretty sure he was kidding.

Although copyediting (or being copyedited) can bring out the worst in a person, lives are not usually at stake. Often enough our egos are the only thing in danger of injury. Still, there are times I feel the rage. And over time, I’ve learned that it simply doesn’t do any good to take an editorial flipoff personally. Better to let it go and save your arguments for writing that is flat-out wrong or embarrassing or offensive. Think to yourself, I did my job. It’s her byline, not mine. My colleagues will sympathize. It’ll make a great dinner-party story. Someday I’ll write a book.

Perhaps you edit the way you drive, either with a fair bit of confidence and a little too fast, or poking along in the slow lane. Either way, just try to respect the most important rules, watch out for the other guy, and get home safely. 

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Photo courtesy of Needpix.com

Comments

[Erin]

See, now you would love me. I'm a copywriter, and the copyeditors in my company edit my work. I accept their changes without question. (Was that comma after "copywriter" correct?)

[Stan Carey]

Rage is bad for your health. Equanimity, on the other hand, is a useful trait for an editor to cultivate.

[Sylvia-rachel]

Excellent advice.

Also helpful -- I think you mention this in your book, but I may be projecting -- is to keep a compliments file, into you which you put a copy of every nice thing any author (or anyone else) says to you about your work. I was advised to do this many years ago, when I was just starting out as a copy editor, and there have been days when getting out that file and flipping through it for a few minutes has been instrumental in keeping my cool. These days I encourage all my staff to keep some kind of stash of positive comments for a rainy day, too.

[Jevon Bolden]

I started laughing when I saw the title of this blog in the Twitter stream. I knew from the door that I would totally get what was to follow. I have to say that I edit by what you said above: "I did my job. It's her byline, not mine. My colleagues will sympathize. It'll make a great dinner-party story. Someday I'll write a book." It keeps me peaceful and somewhat objective.

[Janice Giffin]

More and more academics are required to publish scientific papers in English. I wonder if there is a word for a copyeditor who deals with texts that have been translated (in my case, from Italian) or written in English by an Italian academic? Jabberwocker? Glottimista? It gets complicated sometimes. How would you deal with this? (from a business archives periodical):
"It is necessary to create a different kind of archival culture in the companies. Sustaining the knowledge of the business cultural heritage is the same as spreading the preservation culture.

[Sylvia Needel]

I write and edit - the double job gives me excellent perspective on the writer's ego and the editor's quest for perfection, and makes both jobs less 'personal.'

[Harriet Foster]

I once had to deal with material from a lovely fellow who was a nightmare to edit. Born in rural Ireland, his first language was Gaelic. He went off to a seminary, where they taught him Spanish because he was to staff a mission in South America. He came to me at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, with long, peculiar documents written in English adorned with all the ornaments common in Spanish and Gaelic. We laughed a lot when we were not weeping.