When Copyediting Isn’t Fun: Three Tactics

Sometimes the glamour-meter in the life of a copyeditor takes a plunge. And given that the meter starts somewhere near zero, you know I’m talking serious drudgery here: The index whose subheadings aren’t alphabetized. The table that has to be keyboarded from scratch. The bibliography of citations pasted from other sources without regard to style.

In The Subversive Copy Editor I propose a three-point plan to ward off despair.

1. Automate. This is my first choice for dispatching mindless tasks. I would rather spend two hours learning the right computer trick than an hour doing the work the slow way. At least that way I’ll know how to do it next time.

2. Delegate. Sorry, assistants and grad students and temps. Do a good job and someday you’ll get to delegate.

3. Reevaluate. If there’s no way to speed the task or shove it onto someone else, I take another look: does it really, really need to be done? The last time I faced an index with unalphabetized subheadings (121 manuscript pages’ worth), I noticed just before I snapped the cyanide capsule that the subheadings were in a type of order that reflected the development of each subject’s treatment in the book. Good enough!

Finally, if none of these works, I have a bonus tactic.

4. Accept your fate. Yep, just do it. If possible, break it into smaller chunks. Listen to music. Give yourself little treats as you make progress and a big treat at the end. It’s going to feel so good when you’re done.

Comments

[Katharine O'Moore-Klopf]

Right on! I find, regarding point 4, that rock 'n' roll works well for wake-up-the-brain-and-body dancing breaks, while baroque instrumental music gets me more deeply into the editing zone. Your music choices will vary according to your generation and personality.

[Montana Mary]

I weep with joy every time I read your blog. It's so good to know someone else has been there, is there, or knows how to avoid it altogether.

[nj smith]

Lovely tactics! Regarding the index in point 3: Besides editing work, I spent some time as a freelance indexer. Freelance indexers are in a position closely related to the copy editor's. It's your job to help the author achieve the clearest presentation possible without killing either the author or yourself. Freelance indexers spend a lot of time educating their author-clients; sometimes it doesn't take. So, if their vision for the work makes a modicum of sense, you focus on how to improve their preferred presentation. Of course, when a publisher won't provide or hire an indexer, the author often prefers to do it herself rather than to spend their own money to hire a skilled freelancer. (After all, it's easy to make an index with your favorite word processor--it says so on the help screen. Ich.)

[Samantha Enslen]

I find the following items help quite a bit with motivation: (1) Dairy Queen Heath Bar Blizzard; (2) Wendy's Frosty; (3) Breyers' Cookies n' Cream; and (4) Ben n' Jerry's New York Super Fudge Chunk.

I break out the B&J only a couple of times a year, when I need no-holds-barred, serious motivation for the longest and most onerous of tasks.

[George Ernsberger]

Typically wise and useful advice, and the funniest first line in the history of western literature.

[brooklyn_codger]

Also: remember that you get paid by the hour.

[sylvia_rachel]

Mine is Lindt chocolate bars (the darker the better). I buy them when they're two for $5 at the grocery across the street, and break them out (one square at a time) when the going gets rough. Yesterday I sent a guy 48 queries about a 5K-word journal article. It was a four-squares-of-chocolate day. :P

@brooklyn codger - if only! Freelancers do, but for those of us who toil in-house, a job that takes twice as long as we expected just leaves less time for the next job.