Friday, January 10, 2014

Time to reveal a secret...and make a point.

So, in case you missed out, I made an announcement yesterday. In March (provided no unseen obstacles arise) I will begin a series of courses to become a certified copy editor. The course series is offered by UCSD (University of California in San Diego) and has some very nice write ups as I did my research to select the school I would be attending. 

So why now? Some of you may be asking. Well, I will put it like this: just because a person knows the basics of how to work on your car does not make him or her a mechanic. I have been editing for several years...and I can CALL myself an editor. However, no matter how I look at it, I am really just a guy who knows enough to get by. I want to be a professional, and that means that I need to have the education beyond my Associate's Degree and a few select courses in writing and basic English sentence structure. I am never happy with settling for "just good enough".

The indie scene is constantly under fire for shoddy material. There are hundreds of people out there who call themselves editors, and some of them are pretty good. However, just because I shimmy and shake while my music is playing...that does NOT make me a dancer. People have gotten comfortable with claiming things and giving themselves titles. Maybe that has something to do with how everybody gets a "participant" trophy these days. It has fallen out of fashion to say that somebody failed. The reality is that we all fail...perhaps daily. Somewhere along the line, it stopped being okay to say so. And Heaven forbid if we call somebody on being wrong. Well, then we are just being mean. Everything is sugar coated because we don't want to hurt another person's feelings. I got news for you, not everybody deserves a trophy. Being good at something takes work, you don't get to simply speak it into existence.

So, wish me luck.


11 comments:

  1. well done you on going back to "school".... now is there a beta reading course??

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  2. Does that mean I need to go back to school and get a certificate to call myself a 'writer'? Sheesh...now you got me thinking and second guessing everything.
    Good luck bud. I know you'll get from it what you need. Nobody can blame you for trying to improve yourself.

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  3. Good luck, Todd! I'm sure you'll do great. Congrats on always working to improve yourself. You're an inspiration. I hoping to do some improving myself this year. :-)

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    1. Thanks Rhonda, this will be just another step in improving myself...can never get enough of that.

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  4. Here, here! I totally agree. Good luck with the course and kudos to you for calling it like it is. :)

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  5. Found your books on audible and you got me listening to one book after another.. You are a natural..

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    1. Thanks, I hope you continue to enjoy them! I feel lucky to be able to do what I love.

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