I’m doing a final edit. And I have to share this editing hack I made up: Every time I jump around checking for continuity errors, I type the word bookmark at the place I want to come back to. Then instead of having to scroll around looking for where I left off, I just do a Find on the word bookmark, and I’m taken to where I need to be.
Of course, if you’re writing a book about bookmarks, you might want to use the word zygote instead. Or watershed. Maybe hillbilly.
And one more editing note — I love the word "STET" so much. It’s an editing mark, Latin for "let it stand." I love the way it looks, the way it sounds. I think it would make a good tattoo. Of course, I’m not letting things stand right now; I’m tweaking and fixing them like mad. But in general it’s good practice, I think.
One final thought: Putting a Canadian sticker on the front of your MacBook makes very nice Canadians come up and talk to you. I heart Canada and her people.
Back at it, then.
or schmoo. you could use schmoo. although, if I wrote a book, it would probably be about schmoos.
Yay for final edits!
What I like about stet is that you’re usually saying it to somebody who wants to change what you wrote. It’s much nicer than “hell no” or “shut up”. So professional! xo Kay
Writing about Canadians on the blog will probably make us all come out of hiding to wave.
*waves*
Oh, and here I was thinking my love affair with STET was between STET and me.
Who knew STET was such a ho?
hehee! I have some Canadian flag playing cards, and a little pack of canadian flag travel tissues – a gift from Canadian secret pal! I should use them in public and see how many canadians I can lure over!! Maybe not so many seeing as I’m here in Australia.. but I can try!
And we love you.
I think I would something like “fdsa” instead of “bookmark” because it is shorter and only needs one hand.
I like the idea of typing hillbilly… It nearly only needs one hand and everything! I’ve always just used ??? – but then I’m normally just writing technical documents and need some clarification.
STET would make an awesome tattoo. Especially if it’s done in gangsta script.
That “bookmark” hack is genius. And I like using the word hillbilly — but my last doc had that word in it too many times to be useful. 🙂
Funny you should mention tattoos. A great artist friend of mine is designing on for me (because she’s cool and I’ll pay her in fiber). I should see if she can work STET in there.
Working in graphic design field, I too would have to agree that STET is a beautiful, beautiful thing!
I love that idea. So simple and so useful. Thanks for sharing.
my friend Lisa actually has the word “stet” tattooed on her wrist. the first time i saw it (as a former editor, myself) I almost passed out. I agree, one of the best tattoos ever!
a Canadian in West Texas hearts you back. Looking forward to reading the finished book…no pressure 🙂
I’m so completely glad that someone else has thought about a STET tattoo. I was an editor for several years, and I’m now teaching writing and getting my PhD in rhetoric and writing, so I join you in feeling the mad STET-love.
Heart back from another Canuck. It’s snowing again today. Wanna come have a snowball fight?
Happy Anniversary! Hugs and love to you and Lala!
I’ve been blog-absent for several months but still check in once in a while! Hope to make it to Smileys this month, maybe I’ll seeya there!
Typing in “bookmark” works SO much better than using Word’s actual bookmark function – I’ve been out of the secretarial field almost 3 years now (let the jealousy begin…not) so maybe they’ve fixed it but I DOUBT it since they never fixed alternating page numbering in footers on long docs and a bunch of other things. I went into Kinko’s/Fed Ex as my computer went down and they had the latest version of Word. ACK – completely moved around everything aGAIN! Sheesh. So many writers at companys who graduated with J.D.s and Ph.D.s don’t know the most basic proofreader’s marks. I had one that wrote Stat instead of Stet no matter how many times we let her know. Gee, it’s all coming back – better squelch this now….
So, I also love “Stet” as well as the word “Stints” (for no particular reason) but reading “Let it stand” now makes me think of The Big Lebowski & the line, “This aggression will not stand, man!” Makes me want a bathrobe & a White Russian. But then really, what :doesn’t: make a tired gal on a Monday wish for jammies and a drink?
Just coming out of the woodwork to join the chorus of the “Canadians love Rachel, too” song.
Oh. And a very Happy Anniversary to you and Lala!
And scritches for Digit.
We heart you, too. And I want to hear all about the Hearst Castle! Ah, Xanadu!
See, here’s another Canadian coming over to say “hello”. And Jill in Australia, my Canadian sister lives outside of Sydney. I sent her a t-shirt years ago that says “Canadian Girls Kick A$$”. So keep your eyes out for her, k? I’m starting to think that the new Canadian symbol is going to be the LULULEMON sweatshirt. If you see someone wearing one, she must be Canadian.
Editing hint from a Friendly Canadian Editor: instead of writing “bookmark,” which may or may not be an actual word that gets used elsewhere in your text, just use xxx — no words have that combo, and it’s easy to look up. The other thing: Word’s “search and replace” function is truly the editor’s best friend. When you come across a typo, plug it into “search”…9 times out of 10, you mistyped it the same way at least once in your document, and “search” will ferret it out for you.