#editor at work

[the-cutting-room-floor]

*The Host knocks on Jim's door, holding a small textured bookmark*

"It knows that Jim has been experiencing technical difficulties for a short while and would like to keep Jim company."

(The Host @thehostwritesletters)

Oh thank god for you host bless your soul.

I can't really move or see so IDK it where the door is, but you can let yourself in.

[18kgold]

Technically I can finish this chapter tonight (just under 1k words). Which would be great, since I thought I would do it last Monday, and Friday, and last night. 

I wish I could be slightly less perfectionist in my work, because I am, like, not getting anything done in a reasonable time frame.

[the-cutting-room-floor]

Pitch had noticed Jim practically running off from the living room, knocking on the door to check on the poor thing.

"Jim, dear? Are you all right?"

-jim would get up out of bed only to fall-

I'm fine! I think.

One moment I'm seeing you all strange beasts then i blink and I can't see anything!

-using his hand to feel around he'd push himself off what he feels is the ground-

And I'm not kidding when I can't see.

[the-cutting-room-floor]

Jim, dear, is everything all right?

(Dark knocked on the Jim's bedroom door, concerned.)

-blood-falling

...Shit-

-From the other side of the door you hear the unplugging of wires, the crashing of monster energy cans against one another, until Jim came up to the door and would open it a crack for dark, his hood was up over his head and his sleeves where rolled up-

[18kgold]

I ended up having fun with the college-level paper. It’s being used as a teaching tool -- my student is the teacher, this is one of her new grad students, and she’s looking to push her farther in her scholarship. So I went very heavy on the commentary, especially detailing where understanding was lacking due to the limitations of the cited scholarship. I also realized just how long it’s been since I read Invisible Man (a very long time!), and I think it should maybe get a reread sometime in the not-so-distant future.

Now for another set of revisions/additions, plus a new dissertation, and getting on with the two books I was putting off. Shit. Oh, and the rest of the laundry, but I have to buy more detergent first. And I have to make a gyno appointment asap (it’s insane that I can’t get the pill without checkups given how many Presidential administrations it’s been since I got laid, but oh well). 

The to-do list just keeps growing even as I try to take on less... But I did get even lazier this year. Or at least, since so many of the efforts I made to do A Thing ended in failure, it feels more severe.

[18kgold]

I’m GOOD. at what I do! 

I asked for some major revisions to a paper a few weeks ago, and the writer was nonplussed and said they might send me a few changed sentences. Now I’ve got it again, and everything I critiqued/suggested was addressed... and the result is excellent.

I mean, this happens a lot, and I know I’m good at what I do, but this time is particularly satisfying because, in clearing out the mess, something really solid is taking shape. It would benefit from more consideration, but it’s conceptually valid for the first time.

[18kgold]

There’s no effective synonym for “tug-of-war” -- all the possibilities are either heavily biased towards either the ‘tug’ or the ‘war’ aspect. (Some reviewer mentioned that it’s informal, which it is, but effectiveness trumps formality when there aren’t adequate alternatives.) 

eta: the reviewer also dislikes ‘battle’ (as in ‘battle of wills’, but without ‘of wills’) because it sounds like warfare :/ I made the first one ‘battle of wills’ and changed the others to more sedate words with extra adjectives to counteract the sedateness. Academics can be really myopic sometimes (although it also makes me wonder if the reviewer is also a non-native English speaker, since they’re idiomatic phrasings -- that, of course, I would completely forgive).

[18kgold]

Wow wow wow this one student reminds me way too many times 

that they’re... not so bright. Honestly, I’m not certain how they’ve gotten this far in the program, except that all the in-person checks to prevent certain issues went to hell due to covid. But OOF. OOOOOOOF this last example was really unfortunate.

the original score example heading:  Brahms. Sonatas in F minor and E-flat major for Viola and Piano, first movement, mm. 66.

what the example actually shows: Brahms. Clarinet Sonata in F minor, Op. 120 (arr. viola), first movement, mm. 66.

Because the published copy they used was for the viola arrangement, they forgot that the piece is actually for clarinet. Likewise, because the copy they used combined two pieces (no. 1 in F, no. 2 in E-flat), they listed the title of the publication, not of the actual piece. (Fortunately the two works are not in related keys, so I could figure out which piece it was by just checking the signature.) That’s not even a sloppy mistake, or lack of attention to detail; that’s literally not registering that a score example is of a specific piece whose title may not be the same as whatever form a particular copy is published as.