I had two editors at two different times in my career — at a small newspaper and at the newsletter for a major hospital system in Chicago —use this very effective editors note: “hunh?” when confronted with a sentence that didn’t quite land. So helpful. Truly. You could hear the exasperation of those consonants running into one another. Another favorite editor would write out in black ink, in his perfect print , compliments and suggestions at the bottom
of a print out of my feature stories and “what’s workings” for the PR Intelligence Report newsletter, reserving the red pen for copy edits. (Reader, I married him). I owe my Washington Post Magazine fun and success to the excellent editor David Rowell, who typed the kindest and funniest notes on Washington Post notebook paper that he included with my copies of the magazine. I absolutely struggle with “track changes” changes because just like Slack the app, it does the opposite of what it promises.
Happy Birthday, Christina! I hope it's spectacular!🥳 I'm a red pen editor myself, when reading my students' papers, Jane! I'll be getting my first batch of the year in soon...good times! 🤦♀️
Thank you so much for saying that! Because none of us had any real prior experience, I was making it all up the whole time. I think I got the red pen idea because of one teacher who wrote a big red NO! at the top of one of my papers. And then later I found out that a lot of editors did use the red pen method so it wasn't so innovative after all.
I love love love an editor who’s liberal with praise! Having spent the last five years in the corporate copywriting realm where writers only hear what’s wrong with their work, I realized how important excited, expressive editors are to good writing, and making better writers. By then end of my time in that world I was convinced I was a terrible writer. After all these years! A little praise goes such a long way for everyone involved.
I had two editors at two different times in my career — at a small newspaper and at the newsletter for a major hospital system in Chicago —use this very effective editors note: “hunh?” when confronted with a sentence that didn’t quite land. So helpful. Truly. You could hear the exasperation of those consonants running into one another. Another favorite editor would write out in black ink, in his perfect print , compliments and suggestions at the bottom
of a print out of my feature stories and “what’s workings” for the PR Intelligence Report newsletter, reserving the red pen for copy edits. (Reader, I married him). I owe my Washington Post Magazine fun and success to the excellent editor David Rowell, who typed the kindest and funniest notes on Washington Post notebook paper that he included with my copies of the magazine. I absolutely struggle with “track changes” changes because just like Slack the app, it does the opposite of what it promises.
Now, about that birthday corsage, Christine.
Happy Birthday, Christina! I hope it's spectacular!🥳 I'm a red pen editor myself, when reading my students' papers, Jane! I'll be getting my first batch of the year in soon...good times! 🤦♀️
I'm jealous! Enjoy that whole process, fellow editor!
Lol - don't be!!! 🤣
I love these behind the scenes glimpses into how Sassy worked. Thank you for showing us your magic.
Thank you so much for saying that! Because none of us had any real prior experience, I was making it all up the whole time. I think I got the red pen idea because of one teacher who wrote a big red NO! at the top of one of my papers. And then later I found out that a lot of editors did use the red pen method so it wasn't so innovative after all.
Happy birthday Christina!
I love love love an editor who’s liberal with praise! Having spent the last five years in the corporate copywriting realm where writers only hear what’s wrong with their work, I realized how important excited, expressive editors are to good writing, and making better writers. By then end of my time in that world I was convinced I was a terrible writer. After all these years! A little praise goes such a long way for everyone involved.