Y.A.S.P... (Also known as Scribbler)

[42]

So he doesn't want to think about Scribbler, but he can't get it out of his head, so he thinks about it some more until he starts writing some, then realizes he needs to work on Dragonsteel so he doesn't want think about Scribbler any more, but he can't stop think about Scribbler so he writes some more, then he decides he should really be thinking about Dragonsteel instead of Scribbler,... Sounds pretty OCD to me.

[MPlease]

A lot of people are a little OCD about something. The rest of my house may get to be a mess, but my books will be stacked and shelved in order by size and alphabetically! Brandon's OCD is just a little more useful than mine.  I'm already looking forward to reading it. ^^ Just take care of yourself Brandon, and don't get carpal tunnel!

[stacer]

I have always thought it takes at least a little bit of an OCD tendency to be an editor, because you have to be fastidious about little details like commas and grammatical errors. Not full-on OCD, just a touch. But it's a socially acceptable form of OCD.

[42]

When I worked at the HumPub, I think I met a few student editors who would be strong candidates to be diagnosed with full-on OCD. At least one that I can think of could let a newspaper article, a magazine article, or even a book go by without checking it for grammatical errors and making editing marks. Then she would have to rant about any errors she found for at least a week. It was a little creepy to be honest.

[stacer]

I know editors like that, who rant over authors who change their marks, or who rant about people misplacing a comma here or there. It bothers me, because the truth is few people see their own typos, and it's nothing to rant about. It's just the nature of an imperfect being, and the whole reason for my job, to catch stuff like that (among other larger issues). It's the whole reason copyeditors exist, and it's certainly not personal.

[Fellfrosch]

I miss the good old days (i.e., last week) of writing in Brandon's basement for hours at a time. This full-time job crap is killing my writing, and I'm lucky to get a chapter a day.

[EUOL]

You know, in my abnormal psych class, the professor made a point of explaining that almost all disorders were just natural human behaviors taken too far to the extreme.  It's like personality traits all have a continuum.  On one side, you have normal behavior, on the other it's abnormal.  The line in the middle is the point where the behavior or thought process begins interfering with the person's ability to live their life. 

I think if we look at each of us, we'll find 'disorders' that are normal parts of our personalities.  These things aren't cause for problem unless they interfere. 

[stacer]

That's kind of how I was thinking as I was writing my response--that "fastidious" when it's really just "fastidious" is just a character trait, but taken to its extreme is a bad thing. But it's still funny to me to think about a good editor channeling OCD tendencies in a socially acceptable way.

[Peter Ahlstrom]

Karen and I are obsessed with reading this book, and we want to finish it now!!! I am in the middle of reading a Lloyd Alexander book, a Terry Pratchett book, and a Kim Stanley Robinson book, and I am much more interested to see what happens next in Scribbler than in any of those.

[Pemberley]

I understand completely.  He sent me part 2 a while ago when I was at school, and I spent all afternoon reading instead of grading papers.  (At least when you read from the computer screen it looks as though you are working!)  So is there some sort of disorder for obsessive readers? 

[Peter Ahlstrom]

I'm sure there is, though mine is in remission a lot more often nowadays than it used to be.

[Fellfrosch]

I've been able to read a lot more lately than usual--chalk up one more point for unemployment.

[Peter Ahlstrom]

Didn't you mention something about a full-time job earlier in this thread?

[Shrain]

heh. I think Fell must be reminiscing about the good ol' days of unemployment.

[Fellfrosch]

Unemployment is awesome, and I highly recommend it.