It's not just a job, it seems...

Back from the land of baguettes and fromage, terrifying drivers, marvellous wine for £2 a bottle and siestas that seem to last most of the daylight hours, I've encountered mountains of work on a par with with beautiful Cevennes I've returned from, hence the lack of blog entries recently.

Switching my brain from French to English has been far easier than switching it off at night, and recently my sleep has been invaded by my work. I find myself typing my dreams out (!) and then copy-editing the written dream, followed by a meticulous proofread.

They say if you eat and sleep writing, you're a writer. I've certainly ticked one of the boxes now, but am slightly concerned about the other - perhaps I will soon find myself trundling back from the supermarket with bags full of Alphabetti and Alphabites, and spend my mealtimes writing marketing material out of pasta and articles out of potato shapes.

Proofreading and languages

When I learned French and Spanish at school, I expected to use them on holiday mainly, certainly not as part of my work one day. Yet in my proofreading, copy-editing and copywriting, I have been surprised just how useful my learning in these languages is.

First, there are the times I'll use the languages directly - for example, spotting a typo in a French cookery term in this week's Dummies book, or noticing a missing accent on a top bridalwear designer's name in Bridal Buyer.

Then there are the times that my French and Spanish will help me see the root of a word in Latin, and find synonyms quickly without picking up a book.

But finally, I think it's the discipline and process of learning languages that helps me most to proofread, edit and write well. My English education was actually rather lacking at school, and I have my foreign languages teachers to thank for my grounding in grammar, spelling and punctuation - in order to learn a new language, it helps greatly to know how your own works down to the nuts and bolts.

One of these days I will find the time to improve my French and Spanish, and perhaps move on to Italian. German would also come in very handy, I'm sure. It's not just the English language I'm passionate about, but language in general, and I'm pleased to see when I work on QCA material that more and more languages are starting to come onto the national curriculum. As my five-year-old niece would say, Muy bien.

Technology: It's a love/hate thing

It's been a pretty rough few days for Perfectly Write thanks to the untimely death of my work computer. Thank goodness for back-ups and my laptop, without which all work would have ground to a shuddering halt.

In the interim period while I wait for a resurrected or brand-spanking-new computer, I'm remembering why technology is so essential for copywriting, copy-editing and proofreading. For example, I'm currently proofreading Bridal Buyer magazine, which is emailed to me in pdfs. I usually print the pdfs straight off and proofread them on paper and on-screen which helps me catch all the mistakes, and means I can mark up the proofs ready to feedback changes. But my laptop refuses to connect to our printer, leaving me wasting valuable time each day copying the files onto a USB pen, loading up our geriatric PC, opening the copied files (which takes several minutes) and then coaxing the over-wrought computer to print them.

Frustrating, yes. Inefficient, yes. Here's hoping it's not for long...

Professional writing, grammar and proofreading

Check out my recent Q&A with Self Made Minds at http://selfmademinds.com/200707/professional-writing-grammar-proofreading-10/#more-295.