Author: natalily0317

Don’t Mind the Mess, or Do

natalily0317

Calm blue water, tall grasses, and pretty bird calls surround me on a somewhat muddy trail I have nearly all to myself. It’s late afternoon and I’m exploring the path of an unassuming wetlands preserve nestled within the city. I see several red-winged blackbirds jumping around the tall grasses, and a great blue heron soaring above the water. The experience feels like a slow, warm breeze in a month full of gusty, loud wind. That I’d found such a spot without a long trek into the countryside makes it feel even more like a secret adventure, even if photos of my little oasis give away that I am merely a ten minutes’ walk from a traffic light.

Wetlands Walk, April 2024, photo by Natalie Roth

After a few more contemplative breaths and careful steps, I find my way back to the entrance of the park. Just in time—a group of preteens with toy water guns are about to enter the trail for their own adventure. I can guess which of the two sections of trail they will have to be careful in navigating, and which they will quickly run through (pictured below).

I’m used to navigating misplaced words, not misplaced paths! Two sections of the same trail, perhaps at different stages of completion. Photos by Natalie Roth

Walking the contrasting segments of trail in the wetlands preserve reminded me of the two types of editing I do, copyediting and proofreading. The first path is messier, trickier; I have to slow down and pay closer attention to where I put my feet or I’ll get muddy. A manuscript with the essence of the top photo may be similarly “muddy” and less stable. It needs to be navigated slowly and thus by a copyedit. Copyediting is an earlier stage of the editing process with texts that need more care and attention. This is where typos, grammar issues, and flow get addressed so that the edited result is one that a reader can more easily understand and navigate. I wouldn’t run through this path or text as is, and neither would a reader.

Proofreading, meanwhile, is taking on a text more similar to the path in the bottom photo. This path isn’t muddy or haphazard, and I can even run alongside if I want. This is like a text that is already orderly and relatively easy to navigate. A reader can breeze through with only a few snags or bumps. Proofreading is the stage that checks for missing words, minor typos that missed the first round, and perhaps an extra comma to give it that finishing touch.

Both paths are part of the editing adventure that leads to that calm blue oasis—which stage are you ready to navigate?

Is your writing project looking more like the top photo or the bottom? Read more about the phases of editing on my Services page.

Weighing Your Words

natalily0317
Blue skies over a calm blue lake with a white concrete path pier cutting through the water and leading to a gazebo at end of pier
Take a clear path to your message with precise word choices. Photo by Natalie Roth

When’s the last time you looked up a word in the dictionary? I look up words all the time when I copyedit. Often I want to check if something is one word or two (the trifecta of health care, childcare, and day care springs to mind—spellings may vary), but sometimes I also want to check the meaning of a term and make sure it’s been used properly.

My latest copyediting project was peppered with words that I don’t stumble on in my daily life. My favorite was sequela, plural sequelae. It means a secondary result. A sequela of taking on this editing project was learning words like sequela! And since I looked it up on Merriam-Webster online, a concomitant piece of information was the audio pronunciation, which makes it even easier to incorporate sequela into my lexicon and casually use it in a conversation if I wish. 

I ended up writing down a few more words that captured my imagination in this project, words like concomitant (accompanying), opprobrium (contempt), and diaphoretic (perspiring profusely). These words made the day seem brighter: They let me peek into the author’s perspective on the world through how they chose to describe it. They were also a reminder of the depth and breadth of vocabulary words out there just waiting to help someone precisely express their ideas. 

How do you find more precise words for your own writing? If you get diaphoretic at the thought of finding the exact word to describe what you are trying to say, one handy word resource beyond the dictionary or ordinary thesaurus is WordHippo. This free website is a fully stocked synonym generator. For example, if I look up the word sequela, it starts me off with over thirty synonyms. WordHippo also has antonyms, rhyming words, and sample sentences to help writers choose their words with confidence.

Words help you get across your message, and thoughtful word choices strengthen that message. Have you stumbled on any words that spark your imagination lately? Share them with me on my Contact page.

Natural and Unnatural Wonders

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Every year people flock downtown with the same wonder and awe to see the river dyed green for St. Patrick’s Day here in Chicago. One day the river is a murky, dull flow, and the next it is a vibrant, eye-catching wonder. All thanks to a mysterious powder that they’ve tinkered with and specially formulated to transform the river into the city’s last winter decoration before the (hopefully soon!) show of spring.

Bright blue sky and skyscrapers in the background as a crowd gathers along a bridge to look down at the neon green water of the Chicago River
Throngs of excited people line up along the bridge to take photos of/with the festively colored river. Photo by Natalie Roth

While the metaphor won’t hold water if I take it too far, editing is a bit like that behind-the-scenes magic powder, transforming writing from dull to vibrant. Both processes require background knowledge and training to be able to study what’s there and to shape it into what it could be; there’s the same end goal of enhancing the piece and making it jump out to viewers. The origin of the dyeing ritual, according to NPR, was part of the city’s efforts to clean up the water by diagnosing the source of problems. Similarly, an editor helps the writer to spot any glaring or recurring issues in a text, allowing the piece of writing to emerge cleaner and ready for readers to enjoy.

The green dye is a temporary, unnatural-looking alteration to the river’s familiar color, and it will slowly fade as the month goes on. Meanwhile, an attentive edit enhances the natural beauty of what is already there and will still hold up in April, May, and beyond.

What kinds of editing can clean up your writing? Take a look at my Services page.

Each Other versus One Another

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“Love each other dearly always. There is scarcely anything else in the world but that: to love one another.”
― Victor Hugo (Les Misérables, Part V, 1887)

What comes to mind when you hear this quote? Is it perhaps an echo of Valentine’s Day? Or a reminder of the need for kindness?

As an editor, the other thing that jumps out to me is the interchangeable use of “each other” and “one another.” This use matches how many people write and talk, but not everyone would agree. Some grammarians recommend using “each other” if referring to two people, and then using “one another” for three or more people. So, a one-on-one chat lets you catch up “with each other” but a group meeting (3+ people) may be to compare notes “with one another.”

Applying this logic to the Hugo quote would shape the meaning of the entreaty to love each other to apply to a couple, while the maxim to love one another would have a more universal quality.

a close-up of smoothed over beach rocks
Two, three, four… I lost count! Beach pebbles stacked on one another. Photo by Natalie Roth

And yet, as confirmed in Merriam-Webster, in actual usage this distinction is often not observed and hasn’t been since the 16th century. The terms can very easily be interchanged. Many people prefer to always use “each other” as it can sound less stuffy, while others switch between the two terms with ease.

In my different editing capacities, I’ve come across style guides that make the distinction, and others that do not. Again, both terms are correct if your style guide allows. Even the dictionary approves of a choose-your-own-adventure approach to these terms. There is one choice I would always flag, however, and that is one I came across in a published book this week: “each another.”

Do you prefer “each other” or “one another”? Would you interchange them, or perhaps even blend them into the term “each another”? Let me know by sending me a note on my Contact page.

Rethink These Phrases in Fiction Writing

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“I think to myself, therefore I am.” —René Descartes, not the actual quote.

An animated pencil is looking out the window and has a thought bubble with a question mark inside.

This week I’ve been reading Dreyer’s English, which is densely filled with editing tips on grammar, clarity, and style. From among the many tips in his section for fiction writers (and copy editors), I was taken by his caution against overexplaining everyday gestures. For example, I nod my head—not other body parts. So why not simplify and say: I nodded. I shrug my shoulders—and there aren’t any other body parts you think of if you hear that I shrugged. And finally, I think to myself—I can’t think to anyone else. Dreyer suggests cutting it down to “I think.” These simple edits in a text would look like this:

·        He nodded his head in agreement. > He nodded.

·        She shrugged her shoulders. > She shrugged.

·        I think to myself, Where did the time go? > I think, Where did the time go?

·        I think to myself, What a wonderful world. > I think, What a wonderful world. (Okay, here you may see the difference between lyrics and prose writing. This worked better the first way when Louis Armstrong sang it.)

These tips may not be a fit for every writer and every style of writing, but they are nonetheless approachable, simple tweaks that unclutter a piece of writing. A copy editor’s role is to notice these types of redundant phrases that the writer may have missed and, by doing so, give them the opportunity to think more consciously about their writing.

And what about those times when your character can think at someone else, rather than to themselves? I copyedited a YA novel about mind reading and high school, and the characters did just that. Read the full plot of Mysterious Ways here. This book is also featured on my Projects page.

Pencil image created using Bing AI’s DALL-E 3, January 17, 2024.

Reign, Rain, Go Away: Spotting Common Homophones

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A monarch reigns over their country. A budgeter reins in their spending. A gloomy cloud rains down on a city. These verbs sound the same, but they each look and mean something different.

A forest of tall, thin trees towers above moss-covered logs in the foreground at the bend in a dirt hiking path
Moss reigns where it rains more, as seen on a rainy Washington hike in 2023. Photo by Natalie Roth

This past week while editing I spotted this classic typo-not-typo known as a homophone. Homophones are words that sound the same (homo = same; phonos = sound) but have different meanings or spellings.

Common instances of homophones are:

  • their/they’re/there
  • to/too/two
  • your/you’re

It’s easy to type the wrong one by mistake, but usually a pretty simple fix when proofreading a piece of writing with fresh eyes. Then there are some homophones that are a bit trickier, such as:

  • affect/effect
  • capital/capitol
  • complement/compliment
  • rain/reign/rein

These homophones appear less frequently. You may have to pause and think a bit longer about the part of speech and how the word is being used. My role as an editor is full of pauses for things like homophones. Is that word spelled right? Is it used correctly? Let me check. Is that date right? Is it formatted correctly? Let me check. It takes some time, but the end result is a piece that both sounds and looks how the writer intended. And that sounds good to me!

Want to learn more about homophones? Check out Scholastic’s list of Top 20 Commonly Confused Homophones (on scholastic.com).

Do homophones pop up in your writing? Proofreading is often that last stop to read for proper use of homophones and similar issues. Learn more about proofreading on my Services page.

Careful What You Wish For

natalily0317
foreground shows a hand holding a lit candle with a brick fireplace in background
Make a wish and blow out the candle, they say… Photo by Natalie Roth

I’m new to the fanciful world of American author Bill Brittain, but I recently read his books All the Money in the World and The Wish Giver. In both books, the main characters are presented with the opportunity to make a wish for anything they want. But, as is often the case with these magic wish deals, the characters learn the hard way that they have not selected the best wording for their wishes and things start to go wrong, fast.

I’m about to give away a few plot points for the first book; granted, it was written in 1979, but I still wanted to give fair warning.

In All the Money in the World, the main character gets just that—all the money in the world. That includes money from people’s pockets and wallets and under their couch cushions. From all the bank vaults across the globe. And chaos ensues. Yet the phrasing of this wish doesn’t end up getting him what he truly wanted, which was enough money for his family farm to thrive, and for him to buy the same toys as his friends. I couldn’t help but think that, had he phrased his wish with more precision and forethought, to be exactly what he truly meant, it might have gotten him what he wanted without disrupting the whole world.

A similar fate befalls the three children who make wishes in The Wish Giver. Bill Brittain gives them rather careless phrasing for their wishes to get the story rolling. It is a reminder to readers that making a wish for one problem to go away may just bring on a whole new set of problems, and that trying to make all your problems magically disappear is bound to come with a few catches.

Even knowing this lesson, I couldn’t help but play around with how some of the kids could have phrased their wishes. If they’d tweaked their message for clarity and avoided the obvious loopholes or double meanings, would they have gotten what they actually wanted? Having a second opinion to read over the wish before it went out into the world might have at least made it harder for the wish giver to bend their words. I know he would have found some other mischievous way to bring about a silly result, but it doesn’t stop my wishful thinking.

Similarly, having an editor look over your writing may not guarantee all your wishes coming true, but it will help get your message across more clearly and succinctly. It can bring your own writing closer to how you envisioned it. And there’s no tricky magic involved, just know-how and experience.

Have a project that may need an editor? Check out my Services page to see what stages I can help with.

New Year, New Tools

natalily0317
white concrete bridge walkway with metal railing is set in the middle of a wintertime forest
Following the path of a new year and seeing where it leads… Photo by Natalie Roth

Today is a day for promises, resolutions, goals, and all that jazz. It is part of the trope of New Year’s Day that these resolves don’t last for very long. Maybe not through the month or even through the week. I wanted to share two basic tools that I’ll be using this month as I think about my goals for the year:

Notice and Manage Productivity with Bullet Journaling

A few years ago, a friend excitedly told me about how she started “bullet journaling” and it revolutionized her to-do lists and goal setting in terms of accountability and mindfulness. It is a free method of organization by using coded bullet points to track what you get done and to be more thoughtful as you move through the month and year. It is a simple “analog” tool (just a notebook and pen) to organize your thoughts and goals for the year. Also, if you search bullet journaling in your favorite podcast source, you may find some enlightening interviews and tips on getting started (yes, I listened to a few to refresh myself on the concept).

Read More Books or Listen to More Audiobooks with Libby (and other apps)

Libby has been a great tool for meeting my reading goals and learning about whatever topic I’ve been interested in lately. It is a free app where you type in your library card number and gain greater access to free ebooks and audiobooks, which makes it easy to read on the go. Pro-tip: speed through that nonfiction audiobook you’ve been sloughing through by increasing the reading speed. I don’t notice 1.2x speed (or even 1.5x) but I can absorb the information more quickly. You can check your local library for what other apps they have for books, magazines, and other media 🙂

Thanks for reading and I wish you moments of joy, curiosity, peace, and growth for your today and tomorrow(s).

Have you tried out these or similar tools? Tell me about it using my Contact page.

Improve Your Writing with “Less is More”

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It’s the time of year in Chicago when coughs and sniffles are a steady background track to our daily activities. Part of that is unenviable throat clearing. It could be pre-cough, post-cough, or a simple reaction to the dry air. But throat clearing is usually not a sign of strong health, nor is it a sign of strong writing. 

Throat clearing in writing refers to words or phrases that are unnecessary to the author’s message. Eliminating these words from your writing can lead to more effective, focused prose. For example: “I’m really pretty happy with the direction this whole project seems to be going in” is a long way of saying “I’m happy with the progress of the project.”

Imagine if Charles Dickens had been throat clearing at the start of A Tale of Two Cities. Would it be as memorable today?

In Dreyer’s English, longtime copy chief of Random House Benjamin Dreyer suggests an exercise for both writers and editors: to spend one week without using “throat clearers” in writing or speech. If you take out these little words and find there isn’t much substance remaining, it may be time to rework the sentence.

The following terms are considered throat clearers and can often be eliminated to strengthen writing:

  • very
  • rather
  • really
  • quite
  • that said
  • actually
  • in fact
  • just (to mean merely)
  • so
  • pretty (as an adverb: it’s pretty cold, we were pretty happy with it)
  • of course
  • surely

That said, I’m actually quite sure that this task would surely be a challenge for many. Or, without the throat clearing: This may be a difficult task. But it can also be helpful in thinking through what you want to say and using more precise words to get there.

Looking to pare down your text with expert help? Consider what option may work for you by reviewing my Services page.

*Read the full text of A Tale of Two Cities for free on Project Gutenberg.

A Simple Little System

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Having an idea is a great start, but can it withstand some scrutiny? Fact-checking is an important step in supporting the legitimacy of a project.

This week I rewatched the film Bells Are Ringing, a 1960 musical comedy with Judy Holliday and Dean Martin. Alongside some playful songs, the writers slipped in a message about the importance of fact-checking. You see, switchboard operator Judy Holliday is unwittingly relaying phone orders for a betting syndicate. The ringleader created a “simple little system” that disguises horse tracks as classical music composers and horses as symphonies. So instead of betting $500 on the third horse to win a race at Belmont Park, the bettor calls up Judy to place an order for 500 albums of Beethoven’s third symphony, and she passes along that information to the supposed music warehouse. (The full explanation can be found in this musical number.)

Viola laying on top of a page of Beethoven sheet music
Beethoven (not Belmont Park) symphony sheet music, ready to be played. Photo by Natalie Roth

But the system can’t weather the scrutiny of anyone with some basic knowledge of classical music. The ringleader gets very flustered when a young grocer’s assistant with an interest in the record company poses a few questions. And the whole operation falls apart because of this young man’s musical knowledge. He happens to be delivering groceries when Judy takes an order for Beethoven’s tenth symphony. He comments that it must be a mistake, that Beethoven only has nine symphonies. (Read more about the “Curse of the Ninth” here.) And so, Judy changes all the orders that day from Beethoven’s tenth to Beethoven’s ninth to match the facts—and the ringleader’s simple little system falls completely apart.

This sequence of events is a great lesson in how ideas need to be able to pass scrutiny with the audience. The system was based on lies and a little fact-check poked a big hole in the whole scheme.

I did plenty of fact-checking this week for a fiction manuscript that happened to have multiple music references. All the songs did indeed exist and, once they checked out, they made it onto the style sheet. This is the “simple little system” editors use to track any proper nouns, style decisions, plot points, and characters in one document to ensure consistency. It’s how I caught that a character was given two different last names; it also helped catch a spot where the timeline wasn’t adding up. By the end, my style sheet included a whole soundtrack of songs to accompany the book, and I could report back that the factual details would hold up to reader scrutiny.

Looking for fact-checking and careful attention to the ideas in your story? An editor can help with that! Review the basic categories of editing on my Services page.