I heart copy editors

Copy editors (or is it copyeditor?) are the most irritating essential human beings on earth.

I love them.

I want to be them.

Even though they can be so dang irritating.

One of the reasons they are so irritating is because they are always right.

And they are so essential.

I loved this article about copy editor Helene Pleasants.

In case you have too many other blogs to read today and are irritated by yet another link (I'm kind of irritating with my use of the word "irritating" today), this was my favorite part:

Her blue pencil struck at redundancy, at confusion, at authorial vanity, at the wrong and the false word, at the unearned conclusion. She loved good writing, therefore she loved the reader: good writing did not cause the reader to stumble over meaning.

I particularly like "authorial vanity."

I know that I am certainly guilty of that.

And I see it in the work of others.

And speaking of redundancy, at the risk of being redundant.... (now these links are really irritating, huh?)

Good copy editors are worth their weight in gold.