I am a writer. I am an editor. I am the person other people call, several times each day, saying, “Do you have a minute to take a look at something?” Or, “What’s another word for ‘relevant’?” Or, “Can you fix this sentence? I’m stuck.”

That’s me. So glad that four years of J-school and 12 years of newspaper copy-editing and ad agency copy writing aren’t going to waste here in private industry. Really glad. Especially when I make a mistake.

Ai-yee, I have always hated mistakes, especially mistakes in print. We used to post-mortem each issue of the weekly newspapers where I was the editorial designer. Every error, every typo, every missed photo credit – 34 years later, I still remember those meetings and shudder. Now, on the web, mistakes are in pixels instead of points. But the parameters of the destruction are so much wider in web publishing. With the increased expectation that writers will be capable of independent self-editing comes tighter deadlines, bigger audiences. Ai-yee. Today, I hate mistakes even more than I did in print.

So here’s my post-mortem of yesterday’s work:

1. I revised a cover letter I’d written two weeks ago and then .pdf’d it and emailed it to a prospective freelance writing client – complete with not one, but TWO typos.
2. I asked my online editor why a piece I’d written hadn’t made its usual featured spot – trying not to sound righteously angry, but probably failing on that score. Editor: I don’t know, but if you let me know in advance I can fix the placement. I chalk it up to the cost of doing business – some days I won’t get the feature – and I move on. Until I look at my editorial calendar. I’d headlined the piece “Free rabies shot clinic tonight.” When I proofed it before hitting ‘publish’, I realized that the clinic was on Tuesday. I edited the article to correct the date – but never changed the headline, and published it early Monday morning, instead of holding it for the correct day (Tuesday.)
3. I incorrectly listed a yogurt manufacturer’s production state. Corrected it when I found the error – and the content provider’s website never took the edit.

=sigh=  Third time (wrong) is the charm that breaks the curse, right? Three disasters – now I’m done for awhile?

I think I need that intervention for women who keep trying to do too much.

No more multi-tasking, no publishing tonight. I am going to meditate, do a yoga pose, and go to bed.