EDITOSAUROUS

By: Shaista Khurshid, Calgary Alberta

No one has asked me yet, but I am going to say it anyway: how does magazine editing work? Let me summarize: the magazine goes through multiple editors, writers and proofreaders, of course. Also, not to mention, because we live in a digital age, it also goes through multiple software and programs. Of course again. This sometimes ends up in frustrating, hilarious, serious, or devastating effects on the pieces.

There are many factors which affect magazine publishing. The most ominous one is my glasses. Importance lies on which number of glasses I am wearing. It needs to be kept up to date or else the function and clarity can be affected tremendously. Whose? That is another question.

When a writer submits his or her work, it needs to be initially read, then it is shared with editors to go through and to ask initial questions about the piece. This is followed by a painstaking, patience testing, (from both sides) process. It is to go back and forth with the writer, to ensure that the writer’s perspective is clear and is apparent in the piece. ‘Lost in translation’ literally, while passing back and forth is very easy, as pieces pass through both humans and software, simultaneously.

Then pieces are passed onto the design and illustration team who must fully capture the sense of the piece into a picture or illustrations ‘thus, literally adding an extra 1000 words into it, so the reader enjoys the perspective and its effect two fold.

The next step is our design team’s nightmare or hidden obsession (no comment). Let's face it, our design team loves colors, textures, and movements a little more than necessary. Not to mention their sheer fascination with flowers (no offence intended). But designing and fitting pieces into the page with proper font and sizes is just a small feat. The major hurdles come when the pieces go through the machine to the net, to be published.

When a fully designed magazine takes the plunge from the machine to the internet, things get murky. It happens that, more often than not, some software glitch eats up the chunks of pieces from the stories and adds randomness into it.

Here comes the ability, clarity of the human who is transferring this content onto the net. It depends upon what pretenses this poor gal is going through. The hindrances are not just specific to these. For example, how caffeinated is she? Is she in a word coma? Overworked? Is she sleep deprived? Or can she not pick up mistakes, because reading and re-reading, (in every platform she moves this stuff from and to) has put her into a zombie state. One, more, or all scenarios may be relevant.

When glitches happen, and an AI (artificial intelligence) cannot solve it, we as humans are considered superior in this case. Or to say, you (human) took the job, now face it - too bad, so sad (smirk face). To cut to the chase, the story you see in your mobile devices, is transferred paragraph by paragraph, quote by quote and if there is Arabic or any other language, and the software deems it unreadable, forget it. This multi dimensional transfer is annoying, time consuming and a test of the fragile patience of this human.

Quarterly, every year I beat myself up for taking this task at hand. "What is wrong with me?" I ask myself. (I am sure the other team members feel the same, but they are polite enough not to mention it). I think: why do we like long pieces, complicated design, multiple graphics, enormous detail?

Was it worth the effort?

I do not know. You be the judge of it.

Though, unlike the day of judgement, where we can only wish we have not done the deed, or rather, misdeeds, thankfully, this content can be edited and redesigned before publishing. The million-dollar statement is ‘before publishing’.

Worth it or not, painstaking - yes, annoying at times - absolutely, a test of fragile patience – no doubt, but when it is published, and we see it on the net, we editors, designers, and proof-readers, feel like a proud mother who, after going through a painful labor, gave birth. And in the end we feel blessed with a little, ooey- gooey, bundle of joy.

But!

Unlike a human mother, we go through this intense labour four times a year.

Go figure!

Title Photo By Larisa Birta on Unsplash