Friday, February 20, 2009

What the World Needs Now


Yeah, you guessed it. I have started another blog.

All right, so this announcement is not exactly an epic of massive impact. In fact it has already caused dismay in some people. When I told my Cousin Tabitha I planned to launch an editing blog, her response was: “Oh, no!”

It was unclear whether this had to do with editing or with blogging per se.

The establishment of this new entablature of all things editorial comes as an extension of my SuperScript website. That site, of course, exists to hawk my literary services. But as such there isn’t room to bemuse over, complain about or revel in my obsession with the printed word. Hence: The Editing Room!

And now we digress.

It turns out that there are blogs, sometimes many blogs, in existence on anything you care to make up. Try it – this is a fun game you and your browser can play together. Here are the results of my research, spurred by the flotsam (but not jetsam) of my mind at this moment:

Living by Cartesian principles

Famous nuns of the Reformation

Dangerous international eateries

Sexual embarrassments of early middle age


Now: search for editing blogs, and you yield 16,800,000 results! So in mustering the effrontery to make it 16,800,001, I wanted to do something different. Most blogs of this stripe, it seems, are dedicated to clarifying where apostrophes go, and the differences between “that” and “which.” Not that I’m above that, but, well…..I’m going to try something a little different. Like favoring the jetsam over the flotsam, and eschewing the schoolmarm approach. Because there are blogs a-plenty dedicated to that proposition.

What actually is rare is an editing blog where the visitors ever comment. So let’s buck the trend. Check out the new digs and say something – I dare you.

4 comments:

k. crow said...

Just a friendly suggestion to make your Superscript site link to The Editing Room. Also, link the blog back to your site on your front page for easy cross-pollination.

I'm impressed! Keep up the good work, Mr. Mead.

patsypalooza said...

my favorite random blog:
http://menwholooklikeoldlesbians.blogspot.com/
which, did i get it from you mead?

xop

Mead said...

Patsy, that's hilarious. And you know, as soon as I saw that blog's name, I thought: oh, John Denver belongs there. Sure enough he's on the very first page.

And krow, thank you for you kind words and your suggestions. Actually I DO have cross-links, but they've not on the front page, where they belong. Due to the vagaries of the widgets you get with different blog templates, I don't seem to be able to embed HTML code in sidebars. So the links have wound up on other pages: "Contact Us" for SuperScript, and "About Us" for The Editing Room.

If anybody knows a way around this problem (of how to get code into sidebar widgets), I'd be grateful for a little assist......

Anonymous said...

Ahhhhhh... I'm not sure I really feel comfortable with that MWLLOL blog. I did look at it. I suppose this is why we have a first amendment.