Brain Hurts!

Not a headache this time, this time it's because of actually using the grey matter encased in my skull, whereas I normally hardly tax it at all. I started my home study course today in Proofreading and Copy Editing. I bought the course in 1998 after leaving University and got almost all the way through it before giving up on it, owing to my getting 50-60% in the self testing exercises that are interspersed throughout the ten modules. To be getting that kind of low score on the eighth module was shockingly poor, considering that the course expects a student to be getting 80%+ by that stage.

So I quit it, and for the past few years I've read a lot, and wrote a lot, primarily building an online computer roleplay game called Austin MUD. This was good practice at proofreading, as the majority of those working on the game were Danish or American and not posessed of great skill when it came to writing good english. There are a few notable exceptions, specifically Varda (a danish lady by the name of Rikke Bendtsen, who was the only writer I considered my equal). I also worked on a website called The World of Austin, which helped to hone my skills (especially the Literature section, where I often had to proofread and edit whole stories) over time.

So I've started reading through the modules again, and as of now I have finished three of them, they being the 'easy' ones. I put easy in quotes because while they are not anywhere near as taxing as the couple modules I will be tackling tomorrow, they have taken a toll. Not since May 1998 when I dropped out of University have I sat down and seriously tried to study something, to ingrain it into my consciousness and today has shown me that getting back into that habit is tougher than I thought it would be.

Three modules down, which were the course introduction, and a module each on the basics of Proofreading and Copy Editing. Though I have far more interest in the former (despite the latter paying much better), I am not going to skip any aspects of the course, as it will be helpful as a Proofreader to know how a Copy Editor works (since they deal with a manuscript first, and then pass it on to Proofreaders). Tomorrow, I have the two modules that made my brain ache last time around, they deal with Grammar and Punctuation.

Right now though I'm going to relax for the evening, cook a pasta bake, maybe watch a movie and let my mind unwind a bit, whilst letting todays lessons soak in.