More on the CA Suckiness

I've been thinking about the whole personal CA debacle again, and I've come to realize two things. One, my initial story wasn't great. I know that. I covered Oktoberfest in April. The event was mostly a bore. It's fun for the people who know people participating, but otherwise, it's just a bunch of standing around for six hours on a hot April day. I did my best. The two things that interested me were the brats being cooked in one of the hearts of barbecue country, and the fact that Oktoberfest was going on in April. I tried to put those two elements up front.

Second, the copy editor lied to me. She told me the night I filed that she was deleting a quote, which didn't bother me, and adding more to the title of Wanda Barzizza. That's all I was expecting in the way of edits. I guess in the end she decided to rewrite the thing herself. The story's byline should've said: Quotes compiled by Colin Donohue.

I don't mind copy editors making changes. I've had editors who have made excellent edits that have tightened my writing. I'm appreciative of the work they do. I don't appreciate it when they make wholesale changes without giving me an opportunity to fix it. If I were on an extreme deadline, I'd understand more, but would be no more pleased. But the presses don't roll until 8:30 p.m. Saturday. My deadline was 7:30 p.m. I had it in to her by 6:45 p.m. I could've made any necessary changes as she saw them. Instead, she made the story bland, boring and blah. She should've just taken my name off of it.