Stephanie Gayle

I am reviewing the copyedited version of my manuscript. It's my last look at the raw stuff before it becomes a real book. Reviewing the pages, I am appalled by the number of red pencil marks. I thought I knew the rules about typing numbers (nope) and time (nope) or how hyphenated words work (nope, nope). In fact, thus far I have only marked one thing STET and that was a question from the copyeditor.

I had written that a character is so smart, she can complete the Saturday New York TImes crossword. In the margin she wrote, "Sunday?"

"No," I wrote in the margin below her note. You see, the Saturday puzzle is ten times harder than the Sunday puzzle. I may not know how to hyphenate, write em dashes, or numerate, but I know my crossword difficulty rankings.