Proofreader spotlight: Sunil.: seanan

Proofreader spotlight: Sunil.

Quietly he lurks, sharpening his knives, sharpening his wits, and booby trapping his escape routes, lest one of his cuttingly funny, cuttingly accurate comments causes me to bay for his blood. He is...SUNIL, SECRET NINJA PROOFREADER.

And he has just made me laugh so hard that peas came out of my nose. Actual peas, out of my actual nose.

This hurt.

Sadly, it's difficult to quote Sunil's edits directly, despite the fact that they are some of the funniest shit I've encountered in days, because, well, they're very dependent on the text around them. But he's hysterical. You gotta take me word on this one. I meant to just check to make sure he'd used one of my standard editing formats, and wound up processing eight chapters of commentary, because it was too damn funny to stop going through.

One of the best things about becoming a better writer has been the change in the kind of edits that I tend to get. Because, you see, when I no longer need regular lectures on pacing and character development, it becomes possible for my editors to focus on more important things, like causing me to breathe vegetation.

Best end to a Monday night ever. All hail Sunil!

...go 1 level up... Expand

seanan_mcguire

August 20 2008, 01:39:19 UTC 8 years ago

New comment

Yeah, I was a lot less amused when it was actually happening.

talithakalago

August 25 2008, 01:12:41 UTC 8 years ago

I know the feeling.

There is a whole story on my lj at the moment about trying to free an upset olive python from a vent and... well, it was less amusing at the time than it is today.

August 25 2008, 19:53:55 UTC 8 years ago

Snake trauma is ALWAYS funnier after the fact. It's universal law.

August 28 2008, 00:49:31 UTC 8 years ago

The snake still doesn't see the funny side...

Clearly I have a better sense of humor.

September 4 2008, 00:41:21 UTC 8 years ago

Also, thumbs.

September 6 2008, 00:46:40 UTC 8 years ago

Are you saying people without thumbs have no sense of humor? Because I knew this guy....

September 7 2008, 05:16:51 UTC 8 years ago

Yes, but would he find it funny if he got stuck in a vent...?

September 9 2008, 01:12:58 UTC 8 years ago

I have thumbs and I doubt /I/ would think it was funny if I was stuck in a vent...

(On a side note, I can always tell what days you're answering emails... when I have five LJ comments from you in my inbox...)

September 9 2008, 14:30:19 UTC 8 years ago

I try to answer all the comments I get, because it seems, I dunno, polite? This is a professional journal, and all that. Sadly, I can't really keep it up, as some folks seem to think that they should just keep replying until I hide under the desk.

(Not referring to you at all. We're conversing. Things are being said. New things, even! If you start answering comments with '...' or '*nods*' just to be answering me, I am afraid I will be forced to unleash my flying monkeys.)

September 10 2008, 03:00:47 UTC 8 years ago

I've made the choice to kill our threads before, just to save you replying into infinity. You know I can always come up with something new. Grin. I try and reply to almost everything, but sometimes threads just have to go away and die.

I much prefer your method to people who don't reply though. Ever. Even if I ask them a question. Particularly if it's a question I needed an answer to like: "What's your postage address? You didn't include it on the back of the parcel."

September 10 2008, 03:06:56 UTC 8 years ago

See, that's just plain rude, unless you're so overwhelmed that there's just no possible way. I definitely make it a rule to reply to direct questions, sometimes even skipping over other things in the same post to make sure nobody winds up sitting there going 'but...I just wanted to know...'

September 10 2008, 03:22:43 UTC 8 years ago

I view internet interactions like real life interactions. Ignoring people is rude--but then sometimes people really do just pretend you're not talking to them in real life. (Or does that just happen to me?)

At least online you can get back to everyone when you have time for it. It strikes me that the internet should be easier--unless they're a very slow typer. In which case I forgive them.

September 10 2008, 03:35:59 UTC 8 years ago

I view Internet interactions like real life interactions, within reason. If I go away for the weekend and come back to find ninety+ comments waiting, attempting to answer them all will bring The Wrath of Agent down on my head, since my blog isn't supposed to be that major of a time sink. But I'll still try to answer the important bits.

And no, that doesn't just happen to you.

September 10 2008, 03:39:11 UTC 8 years ago

Well, if you were an actress and there was 20, 000 people waiting for an autograph, you wouldn't stop and talk to them all either.

I wanted to buy this hugely expensive pair of shoes on Sunday and the guy behind the counter refused to serve me. He just... looked the other way when I talked to him. It was surreal. He even served other customers in front of me. I've never seen anything like it.

I can only conclude he thought I was someone else or I dated his sister.

September 10 2008, 03:41:16 UTC 8 years ago

See, that would totally go like this:

Me: "Twenty thousand people! Must sign-"
Kate: "No."
Me: "But--"
Kate: "No."
Me: "But they--"
Kate: "I have the TiVo remote."
Me: "Okay, no signing."

Wow. Are you sure you didn't kick his puppy in another lifetime?

September 13 2008, 23:48:07 UTC 8 years ago

Maybe I wasn't 'alternative' enough for him. Or maybe he DID know me and I'm much too alternative. With me it's a case of 'look mainstream and carry a big weird'.

I think I'd curl up an tremble in terror if there were that many people trying to talk to me.

September 15 2008, 05:02:35 UTC 8 years ago

I sadly do very, very well with huge groups that have very fixed opinions on how I'm going to behave. It's amorphous social settings that cause the curl up-and-die response.

September 19 2008, 00:23:37 UTC 8 years ago

Really? I think I'm the opposite. If people know nothing about me and don't know me from a bar of soap I can work a room like I own it.

Meeting people who know of me just makes me fall into very polite robot mode. Classroom/lecture settings are the same. The wall and I become one.

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Proofreader spotlight: Sunil.

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