word processor

Remember the visceral joy of using a manual typewriter? The staccato rat-a-tat of the keys hitting the paper, the zippy ding! when your words collided with the margin, the silky, inky ribbon, the clawlike t that always stuck and had to be coaxed down from its perch by hand?

Maybe I've been working too much lately, but I miss that interactive, hand-cranked, sniff-the-Xerox fun. Or maybe I'm using the typewriter image as a kind of fetish, trying to channel the spontaneous "I made this" kid feeling that, let's face it, is pretty much absent in the profession of editing. (Look Mom! I colored the typewriter pink!) Quite possibly sitting in front of a computer screen every day in my PJs reading other people's sentences for hours at a time with only my cat and the sound of rain for company is driving me spare. Whatever the reason, I need a creative outlet; lacking sewing, drawing, soap-making, or other cool au courant DIY skills, I figured blogging might pep me up. And blogging about editing...now there's a nice combo.

Like a cayenne chocolate bar, a blog about editing is nicely self-contradictory. The sweet creaminess of the chocolate finds a hot pepper partner. The precision of editing weds the freedom of not knowing what I'll write until I write it. I mean, look--I can't even type a proper em dash in this blog, much less use an en dash. (Caution: Editor cutting loose.) But most of all, I'd like to share what I love--and I really do love editing. Yessiree, Barb, any job where I can immerse myself in words, glorious words...where I get to consult the dictionary on an hourly basis...where I can write off my book habit on my taxes and get paid for the shivery thrill of catching a typo--we won't even mention shopping for stickies, pens, and other school supplies--that's the job for me.

The pink typewriter seemed like the perfect image for this blog, and if I can figure out how to do it, I'll put it up near the title. Oh yeah, the title. I've actually been thinking about this blog for a while now, always under the title Cranky Editor. But for some reason when I actually registered with Blogger, the name just seemed, well, too cranky. Plus Seattle's already blessed with a most excellent literary journal, called Cranky. (There's just something about that word. Cranky, CRANKY. cranky. I almost can't stop saying it.)

While I will definitely be donning my crankypants (Future postings: OUCH, or, Typos That Make Me Want to Poke My Eyes Out With a Stick; Queries You Don't Dare Write [Au: HUH??]) from time to time, I want this blog to be amusing, informative, empathetic, real-world-useful, participatory, and FUN. Like a good girlfriend. Like a chocolate cupcake with pink icing (sense a theme here?). Like a favorite poem. So, casting about for a suitable moniker, I came up with widows & orphans.

For one, I am a BIG lover of ampersands. They just look so cool. I also think proofers are underrated (more on that later), so there's a bit of an homage there (another name I considered was the rather less melodious Hyphen Stack). Plus, though I know several male editors, the majority of us seem to be women, so the name seemed fitting. And, as a freelancer (particularly on a dreary Northwest November day), one can start to feel adrift in a sea of white space.

So, welcome to widows & orphans, your virtual break room. Grab a cuppa, kick off your shoes, and stay awhile. What are you reading? Are you in Feast mode or in Famine? Caught any good typos lately? Did I ever tell you the one about the dangling modifier that...