Saturday, January 23, 2010

Getting Edited

My husband hasn't found this Blog yet.  Actually I'm not sure, but he hasn't offered to edit it yet.  I'm feeling some feelings of humility because I believed that I was a good (sometimes great) writer and now I don't feel that way anymore.

It started out with his comment to me on eHow.  "I will edit your article for a backrub."  Or some such.  He's brutal and thorough.  It's good for me though, really.  I do want to write...and draw, and paint, and bake, and sew...  He is a realist with some very good tools in his belt.  I am a dreamer with a few great stories to tell

I came into the office to check emails and wind down for bed.  He beat me to the office chair and promptly pulled up my eHow account.  I sat on the floor like an humble follower and tried not to cringe when he highlighted whole phrases and moved them or deleted them entirely. 

I am grateful for his efforts in my behalf.  Someday I hope to know where to put the commas and how to be confident when I say the word "parentheses."

1 comment:

Julie Earley said...

I know just what you are feeling. I used to think I wrote pretty well ... and then I married Daniel :) After a few years of having everything I wrote edited (even e-mails) and then being dubbed, "the queen of comma-splices," I began to wonder if I could ever write a coherent e-mail by myself. Very humbling, to be sure. He is loving and kind about it though.

Luckily I've been seeing progress, however slow it may come, as I'm sure you have as well. Ultimately I just had to tackle the comma-splice thing by finding some drills and buckling down. I probably need to do it again. :)

Now I wonder how I ever got along without my (mostly free) live-in editor :)