I’ve been a bit down in the dumps lately, and I’m not sure why. It’s not helped that it’s been slow at work lately, so I’ve not been feeling very “useful” there (even though it has been slow for everyone, so it’s not just me!). And I must say, after being on the marketing side of things for so long I had forgotten how hard being an editor really is sometimes. Especially now, since rather than a coworker being my second edit, it’s usually my boss. See, an editor can catch 95% of the things wrong in a document (of which there may be hundreds). But when the person after you finds the other 5%, you cannot help but feel like a Loser (capital L). And some of them are things you “should” have found…but of course you were finding all those OTHER things, so maybe that’s why you missed it. There really should be some sort of scoresheet so you can show your work that you did find all sorts of errors, some really potentially terrible, even if you DID miss X and Y. And sometimes EVERYONE misses X and Y.
When I first started my last editor job, I wasn’t there for very long before we printed a big catalog. I was the first edit, and a ton of people, including the company president, looked at it after me. It wasn’t until about 500,000 copies had been mailed that someone realized the phone number was wrong! Nobody noticed it because it was a mix of the 800 number and the local number, so I guess everyone still recognized both and didn’t realize it was wrong. There were all these notices that went out in the editorial department about checking that sort of thing, and of course I felt like they were all aimed at me, the new girl. There is one other error that, as far as I know, nobody else ever noticed. It’s not as egregious, and I think the only people who really know about it are the designer I worked with (who makes an awesome comic you should check out) and me. And we will take that editing error TO OUR GRAVES!
And I’m sure it’s like that for many jobs. So while I was feeling all dumpy yesterday, I told myself that I DO need to try harder. But when I miss things (which I inevitably will, because you can look at something 500 times and there will still be SOMETHING there that you missed), I shouldn’t be so hard on myself.
And then I whipped up this little 2×3 reminder to stick in a tiny frame where I can see it, but it’s not in everyone’s face (my desk isn’t very private). I’m sharing it here, because it’s probably something we should all remember. If you do print one out for your desk, share a photo of it on the Facebook page. And we can all tell each other that we are awesome.
To download: right click on image and choose “save image as” or “save target as”. Save to your preferred location and print. It is sized for a standard 2×3 inch wallet/frame.
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I can so relate to this. I’m a programmer rather than an editor, but it’s the same situation — no matter how meticulously you test something, one or two bugs will almost always slip through, and it feels like garbage when someone else finds them. I love your quote and your outlook on it all, though — thanks for sharing!
Yes! I knew I wasn’t alone!
Even in little messages to folks, I hate it when after I have clicked on the send button, I immediately see an error. We are all human and will always make mistakes; some more than others and sometimes more than other times. Don’t be down on yourself for missing mistakes. And if your boss finds them, that is probably why they are the boss. ;o) BUT bosses make mistakes, too! Something that came to mind, “we are all ignorant, just on different subjects. ” (another good sign message!)
I like that one, too