Seanan McGuire (seanan_mcguire) wrote,
Seanan McGuire
seanan_mcguire
  • Mood: quixotic
  • Music: Counting Crows, 'Have You Seen Me Lately?'

Gems from the proofing mines.

Time once again for my favorite semi-regular feature, Horrible Things What Seanan's Proofreaders Say To Her. Today's special guest star is Brooke, taking us for a tour of her wonderful, terrible lagoon with the following gems.

* "Sort of" and "real" need to have a totally hot double date together in the wishy-washy modifier bistro, which is way more romantic than this sentence. Hop in, guys! Alligatormousine will take you right there! Chop chop! Cupid awaits!

* This digression is mildly boring. Toby is bored because she's bad at it, but not the kind of bored where she starts fights, so I'm bored too.

* Needs a serving of Pronoun-Aid, The Handy Kitchen Helper That Clarifies While-U-Wait.

* That would be a really affecting sentence except for how it starts with almost. ALMOST! ALLIGATOR AQUACISE HOUR! 10% discount when you sign up for two classes at the Lagoon fitness center!

Bless you, Brooke, for the way you abuse me. Also, I suggest you lock the doors tonight before you go to bed. I know where you sleep.
Tags: editing, i love my editors, late eclipses, proofreading, silliness
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  • 12 comments

notalwaysweak

April 7 2009, 01:40:32 UTC 8 years ago

See, this is the sort of relationship I like to have with people I edit for, rather than prissying it up with 'Perhaps you should consider...'

Don't mind me. I'm being taught how to be polite to authors and while it's relevant for communicating with authors I don't know, this post makes me miss being able to make sarcastic remarks about the abuse of the word 'green' (he used it twice in one sentence to describe grass. Verdant grass.).

seanan_mcguire

April 7 2009, 17:44:55 UTC 8 years ago

I recommend always starting polite, and then finding the level your author is most comfortable with. I take a level of cruelty from Brooke and Jenn, and other standing editors, that would make me snarl and bite from someone newer to my editing pool.

It's all relative, I suppose.

lyon_martin

April 7 2009, 12:17:42 UTC 8 years ago

Ouch! Good things the editor is on your side. I'd hate to see what she said if she didn't have your best work in mind. Ouch!!

seanan_mcguire

April 7 2009, 17:45:05 UTC 8 years ago

How I adore her.

archangelbeth

April 7 2009, 15:11:10 UTC 8 years ago

*beth prepares to fire up her laptop and do searches on "real," "sort of," and "almost."*
>_>

seanan_mcguire

April 7 2009, 17:49:45 UTC 8 years ago

They are occasionally necessary words, but I think we all depend on them a bit over-much at times.

archangelbeth

April 7 2009, 18:20:25 UTC 8 years ago

*nod* That's about right.

I think I'm going to have to check out "realize" and "really" at some point in the future. Not too many unnecessary "real"s, but I do love those other two words, I do.

And I axed at least one "almost," yay!

catvalente

April 7 2009, 19:56:02 UTC 8 years ago

I heard the Kitten Sundae clan sing Wicked Girls last night. I nearly cried.
*hug*

seanan_mcguire

April 7 2009, 20:11:53 UTC 8 years ago

Several people came up to me after the concert and said that when I was called up, "Wicked Girls" was what they were expecting to hear. :) I adore that song -- mostly, I'm ambivalent to negative about my own work, but that song, I feel I'm allowed to love -- and I love that people do it.

I'm so glad you got to hear that from them. Oh, my Alice, she treats my words so sweetly.

catvalente

April 7 2009, 20:39:25 UTC 8 years ago

I am an Alice nut. It's hard for me to even talk about, Alice is so deeply entrenched a part of my psyche and my heart. A lot of songs and literature about her puts me off, because that's not /my/ Alice.

But this song drew me from across the house, like a little girl to a warm window. I haven't heard many of your songs, despite reading a lot of lyrics. But I love this one, and wish it were recorded.

seanan_mcguire

April 7 2009, 20:46:52 UTC 8 years ago

"Wicked Girls" is very much a symbolic set, for me, and Vixy is my Alice (and I'm her Dorothy), and the way she sings the things I write sometimes makes me cry a lot. It's so wonderful.

My fairy tale girl is really a fairy tale girl -- I'm a little mermaid who grew up to be Snow White, and there's a headache and a half waiting to happen, but it's glorious.

There's a very rough version of the song that's linked somewhere from this journal, if you don't have it; we're going to record it more properly, soon.

seanan_mcguire

April 7 2009, 21:00:52 UTC 8 years ago

Also, you might like this:

"Breathe the Wonder."