WordAdjust Copy Editing Services

Are you writing a book or short story?

Would you like some helpful feedback?

Helpful, unbiased and thoughtful feedback is the number one way to better a writer’s work.

I'll help you organize and develop your story.

I’ll help improve the quality of your writing.

I’ll help you rewrite or reorganize the manuscript to enhance material.

I’ll work with you to make sure your writing is clear and concise,

says what you mean.

I will help you with sentences, paragraphs and chapters and make sure the overall presentation of your manuscript is consistent and carries your story in a fluid and readable way, and that the layout and formatting is suitable for submission.

I understand the importance of preserving a writer’s perspective.

Helpful, thoughtful feedback is the number one way a writer can better his/her work, and it works best to have a fresh pair of unbiased eyes look over your work.

Editing assistance begins with critique and ends with publication.

Contact me for references and additional information. 

M. K. Dalziel

wordadjust@gmail.com

Perseverance

A recent  obituary in our local paper told of the life and death of one Happy Hieronimus who was born in 1930 and died of "terminal old age." Right away, the name "Happy Hieronimus" intrigued me, and as I read her obituary it became clear her name fit her personality. Quite a lady!

It was the phrase "terminal old age" that set my mind turning and churning. Of course, we're all "terminal." But, we don't think of our life that way, do we? 

David Eagleman, a neuroscientist and writer at Baylor College of Medicine, where he directs the Laboratory for Perception and Action and the Initiative on Neuroscience and Law, was quoted as follows:

“One of the seats of emotion and memory in the brain is the amygdala. When something threatens your life, this area seems to kick into overdrive, recording every last detail of the experience. 

The more detailed the memory, the longer the moment seems to last. This explains why we think that time speeds up when we grow older, why childhood summers seem to go on forever, while old age slips by while we’re dozing. 

The more familiar the world becomes, the less information your brain writes down, and the more quickly time seems to pass.”

On a conscious level I don't think of "something [threatening my] life," but I certainly know I am not going to live forever. 

This assessment of Eagleman's answered several questions my friends and I (all around the same age) have often asked ourselves and each other. Well, maybe not "several questions" answered--maybe it simply explains the one we wonder about constantly: where has the time gone?? 

Spring passes and one remembers one's innocence.

Summer passes and one remembers one's exuberance.

Autumn passes and one remembers one's reverence.

Winter passes and one remembers one's perseverance.

~ Yoko Ono

Read it Write Hear (redux)

Below are a few gems from my ongoing collection of oddly parsed or punctuated phrases.

How in the world do misleading headlines such as this, below, become approved for print???


Sen. Sherrod Brown is battling opioid abuse and fights for coal miner healthcare
The headline wrongly implies Sherrod Brown has an opioid abuse problem of his own.

Why do (some) people write/say, "Happy BELATED birthday"? The birthday didn't happen late, their greeting did!

More and more often I'm reading and hearing "that" when referring to humans. I know language shifts and changes with the times, but really, humans are "who," as in, "The man WHO rode the bicycle..."  

Merle Haggard dies on 79th Birthday of Pneumonia

Well, who knew "pneumonia" had a birthday? Well, why not? My bologna has a name!

[Designer] commented on the hideous bridesmaid's dress.

Really not nice to make a derogatory comment about the looks of the bridesmaid.

[She] took on the case of a young man who, due to neurological damage, spoke sentences backwards in order to test new technology.

Yes, I know what was meant. But the sentence implies the young man spoke the way he did so that the technology could be tested!

This is a shot of a humpback whale captured on the Columbia River. 

Seriously, the whale was captured on the Columbia River? Wow! Poor whale.

Some birds, like this wild American Whiskey Symbol, lay their eggs ... . 

I immediately checked my bird book for a bird named, "American Whiskey Symbol," or "Whiskey Symbol." Nope, no such. Hmmm. Oh, the speaker is referring to the wild turkey pictured on a brand of American whiskey. Ah-ha. 

He vandalized the car while he was driving with a knife.

Okay, he was driving with a knife. But, how did he vandalize the car?

The Smith's [insert any name] invite you to their ...

The Smith's what? Their dog, their cat, their grandma? Apostrophe overload again!

Authorities are investigating a man's death after a Nebraska farmer found his body in a barrel ...

That is a true "out of body" experience.

Oregon State Patrol officials said ... they responded to a report of illegal livestock being killed and butchered. 

Those darned "illegal livestock." Will they never learn?

...Latvian-manufactured drug popular for fighting heart disease in former Soviet countries.

Don't you wonder why it only fights "heart disease in former Soviet countries"?

Ranchers drove cows and pigs to the slaughterhouse on horseback.

Now that's a funny mental picture: cows and pigs on horseback! Awww, Smithsonian. 

He is married to his wife, ...

Well, I should hope so!

[more to come ... and yes, correct &/or question me any time! I love this stuff!]