I’ll Edit Your Face

Editor Kitty is our unofficial mascot at my office (our official mascot can be found here). I love editing–maybe it’s because I enjoy    pointing out others’ mistakes, maybe it’s because I have always loved reading, or maybe it’s just because most people cannot write and they desperately need help. The reason is not all that important.

I recently learned about a fun new way for the editor nerd in all of us to get our thrills (that doesn’t involve correcting loved ones’ grammar or whipping out our Sharpies to obliterate renegade apostrophes and quotation marks on signage). Bite-Size Edits is a new website that allows you to suggest changes to randomly generated pieces of text. Most of these sentences come from rookie writers trying to capitalize on social networking by getting free proofreading, but some have been uploaded by bona fide authors such as Tao Lin and Lydia Millet. It’s a fun way for authors to connect with their fans and potential readers, and to perhaps even get some valuable feedback on their work!

It’s also a fun way to procrastinate while you’re supposed to be doing actual editing…not that I would do that.

What do you think? Would you use this as a way to test your work out in the public?

*Cross-posted to Fringe Magazine*