Monday, May 05, 2003
I think I will write a sonnet on my dislike of copyeditors. I do my dislike a disservice, using "dislike" instead of some stronger word. But all is politics. Still, I fear some of the notes I wrote on the Roc Low Red Moon CEM yesterday were far from politic. I have an urge to recount some of the sillier comments made by the the copyeditor is question, but, alas, that would probably not be politic, either. I will amend my dislike: I have nothing but praise for the copyeditor who catches my misspellings and missing commas. However, easily 70% of the marks on this ms. fall into another category entirely. If copyeditors wish to write novels, they should write their own. I think they would quickly discover that their knowledge of the dubious "rules" of English are only a small part of what is required for the task. Clearly, they tend to run short of imagination. And a knowledge of how human beings actually speak to one another.
We spent most of yesterday, and a big chunk of last night, dealing with the CEM. Three of us working together, me and Spooky and Jennifer, and managed to get to Chapter Seven. Far better than I'd expected. And I didn't even bite anyone. Good for me. However, a small problem with the Subterranean Press text, discovered as we were finishing up last night, has complicated things. We'll continue with the Roc text for now, then circle back to the subpress text. This work is dreadful. It's not writing. It's not art. It's pointless, unnecessary drudgery. It's pure tedium, which, I'm reminded, John Gardner described as "the worst pain."
But it has led me to find creative ways to avoid trademarked words. I've ditched Sheetrock, Realtor, Kleenex - easily replaced with drywall, real-estate agent, and tissue, respectively. So much for product placement. I marveled that no one has trademarked duct tape. Oh, and to hear the manufacturers of Styrofoam tell it, Styrofoam-brand polysytrene foam is most emphatically not used in the making of disposable coffee cups. Yes, I spent yesterday thinking about such things. I will do so again this evening.
I also have to get the last little bit of stuff together for Bill Schafer for The Five of Cups, mostly extra material to be used exclusively for the lettered edition (a preface that wasn't used, deleted sections of text, notes, etc.). This will be my day.
Please send help.
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