by Jamie Chavez | Apr 27, 2015 | Your Editor Says …
I really love the left-brain/right-brain duality of editing. It’s both prescriptivist and descriptivist. It’s a puzzle and yet has the same elements. Every project’s different … and every project’s the same—in that it has a need for a style guide. You’ve heard me talk...
by Jamie Chavez | Mar 14, 2015 | Your Editor Says …
No, really. I’m not. Not outwardly, not inwardly. Promise. The Old Editor Says … Edit to live, don’t live to edit.* It’s not your job to correct other people’s speech. It’s not your job to correct menus or public signage. It’s not your job, however much it may appeal...
by Jamie Chavez | Apr 10, 2014 | The Writing Craft, Your Editor Says …
You’ve seen it in dozens of movies, so many it’s practically a cliché: on a desperate deadline, the writer frantically types the last words of the manuscript—closeup of the words The End—then rrrrips the paper out of the typewriter carriage, and immediately sends a...
by Jamie Chavez | Aug 22, 2013 | Your Editor Says …
When I was a kid, some of my best friends were teachers. What grade was I in when my teacher read aloud to us every day after lunch? The Story of Doctor Doolittle (by Hugh Lofting, published 1920) influenced me in many more ways than just giving me a delight for...
by Jamie Chavez | May 4, 2013 | Words & Language
For a pair of countries that share so much history (read David Hackett Fischer’s fascinating Albion’s Seed if you don’t believe me), England and the United States are curiously divided on words and how to use them. Or spell them. The fact that we’re still talking...
