Working scared (b/c of mistakes)

[Mystery_Meat]

You may be 0-4 now, but you'll win your next eight.

However, it won't keep you from losing your top recruiting prospect to Auburn the next season.

Nothing really constructive to add, other than to point out that based on my knowledge of your work, I doubt you'll be slumping for long.

Also, set your feet before you release the page. That'll help cut down on errors.

 

[Ace]

We all -- writers, editors, designers even -- have that 3 a.m. feeling where you sit bolt upright and say ... Damn. Did I spell that guy's name wrong?

On the positive side, if we go web only we can quickly fix it from our laptops (though it will be correct 90 percent of the time and that feeling was just a bad shrimp).

 

[greenlantern]

Can't let this shirt get to you. When I first started on the desk, I forked up royally three times in a week, including an embargoed story. Thank God my SE at the time saved my ass, and I improved greatly over next few months. Just relax and learn from your mistakes.

 

[Hustle]

Thanks to all of you who stopped by to offer advice. I will try to take this to heart when I head back into the fire tomorrow. (I actually had a reply half typed this morning, then realized I wouldn't be listening very well if I posted, thus allowing me to brood about it for most of the day.)

No, none of the mistakes have been major. But a thousand cuts bleeds as much as a gaping wound...

I'd always thought of myself as a good utility player. Desk shift? Not a problem. Quickie feature? Got it; won't be great, but it'll be clean and on time. Tricked-out CP? Sure, as much as my limited skills allow. Etc. But a streak like this has done a doozy on the self-confidence, as I'm sure we all know. Maybe I really was better at the one-off, occasional designs than I am at cranking out page after page, day after day. Or maybe a better streak begins and, two weeks from now, all of that seems like nonsense. I don't know.

If you've read the MG thread at all, you'll know that we've gone to a U-desk; there are three other copy editors, one of whom has any idea about sports (and even the one is mostly limited to baseball). And I'm fully aware I'm virtually useless to them when it comes to knowledge of local news. At any rate, the support system behind me isn't great. Perhaps that makes for extra pressure - or at least those kinds of feelings - on my shoulders. But I don't want to allow myself to use that as a crutch, either.

And, like all of us, there's a lot on all of our minds. I'm no different in that I worry about my job and whether the 'we're not going anywhere' line from our publisher is bullshirt or not. I'm sure some of you saw the HOA thread in Anything Goes; I spend far too much time being pissed off at those two dickheads. I can't honestly say this isn't my dream job; I was happy enough as a writer and I'm certainly still bitter to a degree about being moved. (There are other reasons to that as well, all better left unsaid.) I try to clear my head when I get to the office, and maybe I'm not doing such a good job that.

But I'm trying my best to be a pro about it. I can only hope that all the excellent advice I've gotten will move me further in that direction.

 

[This is my username]

To paraphrase a great man, "When you start to worry, you should stop worrying and be awesome instead. True story."

As we've all said here, walk in every day expecting to be perfect and walk out every day knowing it's impossible.

 

[JakeandElwood]

You may be 0-4 now, but you'll win your next eight.

However, it won't keep you from losing your top recruiting prospect to Auburn the next season.

...

Also, set your feet before you release the page. That'll help cut down on errors.

Awesome.

 

[shotglass]

And while we're at it, Hustle, I'm willing to bet you have not turned out a page with the same story on it twice.

(Oh, yes I did.)

 

[OrangeGrad]

One thing I've kind of trained my self to do -- if I'm reading something I've done, like a headline, and I know what the next word is before I read it, I stop and start over. It's my way of making sure I'm reading what's actually on the page and not what I remember. You've got to catch yourself doing it, but it's helped me catch mistakes. When you're in a hurry and you think you typed, "Devils beat Bruins with late goal" but you actually typed, "Devils beat Bears with late goal."

 

[I Should Coco]

Hang in there, Hustle. We've all had nights on the desk where it feels like we're scrambling and running uphill the entire shift, and those are the times when errors happen.

That's the great thing about a daily paper, compared to a weekly: If you make a mistake, you get to wipe the slate clean the next day. You don't have to live with it for a week.

And kudos to Shotglass for pointing out about anal-retentive page proofing. Here's how I like to do it (in order of importance):

1. When you get the proof, check the heds, cutlines and scorebugs.

2. Thoroughly read the local stories.

3. Read the wire stories.

And as you're about to hand the proof back to the copy editor who laid out the page, skim over the heds and cutlines again.

 

[Ace]

That's some serious proofing.

I love when people call about a mistake and say "Don't you people have proofreaders?"

heck no. Even copy editors are an endangered species these days.