Friday, July 3, 2009

If My Dog Were a Writer...

As you may know, I just got finished editing a book about Boston Terriers, and am now working on a book about Golden Retrievers. The differences in the author submissions are striking, and quite comical! Is it the dog the resembles the owner, or the other way around?

Boston Terriers are known for their crazy enthusiasm. When I think of a Boston Terrier, I think of a smiling little dog, hopping around all over the place, frantically looking for a ball. I don't know as much about Golden Retrievers, but when I think of them, I think of the dog that sits in front of their owner, patiently waiting for the ball to be thrown. This is a case of two types of dogs, looking for the same thing, but going about it in very different ways.

Editing stories from the two types of owners has largely been a similar experience! Boston Terrier owners, as a whole, submitted stories with an abundance of exclamation points and some questionable punctuation/capitalization. Golden retriever owners, in general, submitted very clean looking paragraphs with the standard punctuation you would expect from a grammar class. Both sharing loving stories about their dogs, but going about it in very different ways!

This has all been very fun - I'm not only learning about the different traits common in dogs but I'm learning about similarities in dog owners! For my part, I must admit, my writing does not usually overflow with exclamation points but it's only because I was drilled for it in marketing school. The Boston Terrier in me always has her trigger finger ready for the Ctrl+1 !!!!!!!!!

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