I think everyone will agree with me that the year 2020 was a nightmare from the start. Everyone I know was begging for 2020 to be rebooted, and the world has become a CrazyTown.
This post was written on May 31, 2020, at least that was the date where I live, and I had just finished watching the launch of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and the Crew Dragon capsule. It might be hard to believe, but I'm sitting here crying as I type this, and I'm not sure if I can fully explain why, but I'm going to do my darndest to try.
As far as I'm concerned, that launch was the true start to 2020. Sure, by May, it's nearly half over, but it wasn't until that launch that I finally felt like hope was on the horizon. It wasn't until that launch that I could finally breathe deeply again.
A few months back, I was part of a discussion on Facebook about books that are specific to developmental editing. Being a developmental editor, I watched the thread like a hawk. I wanted to know what books are out there and what was high on the recommended lists. Many of the books discussed I already had, but there was one that came highly recommended by several on the thread.
So, I ordered a copy of the book myself. It took approximately 6 weeks to arrive (shipping to New Zealand is always a long, drawn out wait), and when it got here, I sat down and started reading. And instantly regretted buying the paper version of the book.
Don't get me wrong: the technique presented in the book is gold. The book itself…
If there is one constant within the world of publishing, it would be that typos happen. It doesn't matter how many times you go through a piece of written work, there will always be something that's missed. You could have six different sets of eyes on it, and things still slip through. And the longer that piece of writing is, the more likely that errors get missed.
To complicate matters, you might have the cleanest copy on the planet, but errors creep in during typesetting too. At every stage of the writing/editing/publishing process, there is an opportunity for an error to be introduced—and for that error to get missed.
It happens.
I'll be the first to grant you that when a piece of writing is riddled with typos and grammatical errors, it's frustrating to read. However, I have said it time and time again: if a story is gripping, most readers will be willing to overlook the odd typo or grammatical error.
As writers, we need to accept that typos WILL happen.
As editors, we need to accept that we're NOT perfect.
However, there are some people out there who are Grammar Nazis from hell and will publicly shame you for making innocent typographical errors. It's because of these jerks (and that's what they are) that many writers and editors despise the idea of blogging. They're afraid that their writing might be torn to shreds because of those innocent mistakes. But what the Grammar Nazis forget is that mistakes happen.
The production schedules for a blog are tight. Certain steps within the editing process are sometimes missed. The thorough care that we give our novel writing is not given to this short piece that is going to go up on the web within hours. Newspaper articles are much the same in that respect. Mistakes creep in, it's the nature of the beast. But when the public shaming starts…
***Breathe… Just breathe…***
I think it's time to put reality back into the blogging world and remind a few editors that we're only human.
There is no doubt about it: the world that I grew up in is gone. It was filled with kids having water fights in the streets, our house being the place where all the hoses seemed to converge. It was bikes and bells, and doing what we could to get the ball away from the dog. It was riding the Tonka toy fashioned to look like a Jeep down the driveway (mom rode that toy down the driveway too). And it was pen pals with snail mail and waiting for the postman to come.
Who remembers these? They used to be on every street corner. Now, you don't seem them at all. At least, that's the case in Christchurch, New Zealand.
You were at the mercy of whatever the TV networks decided to air. You didn’t like what was on, you either lumped it or read a book. Phone conversations were scratchy at best and, in some areas, party lines were still a thing. There were phone boxes on every street corner, and cash paid for everything.
The concept of cell phones didn’t exist in my youth. Car phones were for the rich only. The internet was this unheard-of thing, and modems required you to place the handset from the phone onto this chunky device with pulses and high-pitched noises going down the phone line.
Video calls and streaming your favorite show to a handheld device wirelessly was something seen only in science fiction. Genetic modification of human embryos was the source of freaky war storylines from Star Trek. Yet, here we are.
Science fiction has become science fact. (And yes, genetic modification of human embryos is now science fact.)
Yeah, the world I grew up in is definitely gone, but there will always be those who wish we could go back to the way things were. Their reasoning is often linked to some comment as to how out of touch with the rest of the world the next generation has become—how the next generation is so caught up in an internet world that they're missing the life in the local neighborhoods. In some aspects, I agree with them. But while I would love to cling to those go-outside aspects of the world that have vanished without me even noticing, there are other aspects of this new internet-based world that I have openly embraced and would never look back.
But these changes that I see in my world and in myself, was it really just technology that brought them on? Have we, as a society, really changed all that much?
Has our new level of technology brought about a level of disconnect between the generations that wasn't there before?
We're coming to the end of the year, which means that people around the world are going to start reflecting on the year that has just past and are going to start making those New Year's resolutions. It's only nature. A new year. A new start.
Many writers will start their year with new goals too. Some writers decide to finally get their names out there, building their online presence. Others will set the goal of publishing that book. Others just want to finish the dreaded manuscript. Whatever the goal, there will be common threads among writers.
You have likely seen a few messages or posts on other sites regarding SMART goals. This is important, because they do make the goals attainable and a little less daunting. However, there is an additional aspect to goal setting that I want my fellow writers to think about.
