Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Que Sera, Sera

I landed what I thought was a dream writing assignment: unique topic, good medium, big name—what could be a real cornerstone of a portfolio piece, but instead it turned into that corner of the coffee table that you repeatedly bang your shin against in the dark.

I first received word of the assignment about two months ago and have been ecstatic about it since then. Except, for the fact that the project has been continually pushed back by the client until now, when it is of course piggy-backed on top of other deadlines and struggling to seek its priority ranking in the chaos that is my daily life of late.

I finally wrapped up the project today, or at least did what I was allowed to do with it. As a writer nothing is scarier than to hear the words, "The copy is really well put together, it just needs a light copyedit."

Bullshit! Bullshit! Bullshit! Editing copy that is "nearly ready to go" means not only do you need to dot the Is and cross the Ts, but you need to make sure they didn't mix the two up…and then there is the bizarre grey-shrouded land of copyediting, more specifically light copyediting—how far can you go? Something can be grammatically correct, yet still painful to read and ultimately the work reflects on you, so what do you do?

Well, now that I've lamely started three consecutive paragraphs with "I" and worked in three corresponding "bullshits" – I might be bullshitting you, but I feel a little better.

And as always my horoscope confirms it:

September 20, 2006

Action you take today may significantly annoy someone else in your workplace. Other people's moods are going to put a damper on you and your work, but this is no reason to slow down or change course. Continue on regardless of others.

Que Sera, Sera – What ever will be will. Keep on Truckin' as the stoney folks say.

No comments: