Dear readers,

here comes the September edition of the Side Notes!

Today, it’s all about tunnel vision during the writing process and how to best deal with it. We’ll also continue learning about various types of unknown beings in Chinese strange tales collections. Of course, I present you with a fresh selection of unfortunate or unedited phrases that I’ve come across in my everyday reading. Lastly, you’ll find out what’s on my September reading list.

Do you have questions or suggestions for my Side Notes? I am always happy to receive your feedback! As usual, you can find all past newsletter editions on the website, too.

Warm regards,

Teresa Johnson

—
Teresa Johnson, Ph.D. 姜心悦
German (native), English, Chinese

Lektorat Johnson
Services: Editing and Translation
Specialization: Academic and Nonfiction Writing

Tips from your Editor

Tunnel vision—what is it and how to deal with it?

When you spend a long time writing and totally immerse yourself in the writing process, you will eventually miss the forest for the trees. In other words, you will lose the necessary objectivity to recognize mistakes of all kinds in your own text. Because you immerse yourself so deeply into all facets of your text, you may no longer recognize problems with logic or missing words. Even spelling and grammar mistakes may go unnoticed. This state, in which you cannot see your own mistakes anymore, is what I refer to as tunnel vision here.

You may ask yourself: now what? What can I do about this or how can I avoid this altogether? First of all: Not to worry! This is completely normal. At a certain point in the writing process, this happens to everyone, even to the best writers out there. This is true for myself also: Even though I am an experienced editor, I sometimes still miss a few mistakes in my own writing.

Unfortunately, there is nothing you can really do to prevent the tunnel vision. However, don’t despair! The best remedy is to let other people read your texts. Ideally, these are people who have not read your text before. With their fresh and unbiased eyes they will quickly notice and point out small and big mistakes. That helps you to further edit and develop your writing.

This is also exactly what I do as your editor. I serve as your fresh pair of eyes and will call your attention to breaks in logic, inconsistencies and any mistakes on the language level. Furthermore, while many test readers only point out your mistakes, which is helpful, too, I will always provide you with concrete tips and practical advice on how to actually improve your writing and therefore better reach your target audience. Because I believe that feedback is most useful when you know how to purposefully implement it.

For future projects you now know: You don’t need to be afraid of tunnel vision. Instead, it makes sense to turn to someone you trust and who will help you overcome your tunnel vision!

Asian Studies

Chinese texts labeled as zhiguai 志怪 (literally: records of the strange) tell stories involving humans as well as a variety of other kinds of beings, including animals, gods, ghosts, monsters and many more. In this section of the newsletter, I am going to introduce you to these beings (and more) and will provide you with tips and examples as to where you can read more about the topic of the day.

Who or what are guai 怪?

Today, we’ll continue with guai 怪: monsters. The English translation makes clear that these beings, contrary to gui 鬼, can be dangerous for humans or at least have the potential to frighten them. The appearance of guai-monsters is more difficult to describe than that of gui-ghosts, because they appear in various shapes. Sometimes they resemble humans. Often they look like animals, but sometimes they arise from material objects. In order to escape the haunting of a guai-monster, it can be necessary to resort to violence. In some cases, humans achieve their peace and quiet simply by removing certain objects from their house or environment. Even though there are rare instances in which guai-monsters simply try to annoy humans with their pranks, guai can generally be described as malicious and dangerous.

Examples of guai 怪 in zhiguai stories

Just like there are many stories of gui-ghosts, there are also many stories about guai-monsters. The story collection Zibuyu 子不語 (What the Master Would Not Discuss) contains many relevant examples.

In “Bian guai 匾怪” (The Plaque Monster), a monster bothers scholar Sun in his studio. The monster looks at him and disturbs him from its hiding place on a plaque on the wall of the studio. The monster has a long beard which it uses to tickle Sun. Whenever Sun takes a close look at the plaque, there is nothing to be seen. After this goes on for several days, the monster even starts prickling Sun in his sleep at night. The monster only disappears after Sun and his family remove the plaque from the studio and burn it.

In the complicated story “Hudie guai 蝴蝶怪” (The Butterfly Monster), a man named Ye goes on a day trip and chances upon another man travelling to the same destination as Ye. From the start, Ye finds this man somewhat creepy. When it gets dark, Ye sees how the other man’s head strangely dangles down from his neck and how the man displays his oversized vermillion tongue. An acquaintance of Ye’s assures him that the strange man is his cousin. At night, after a few glasses of wine, Ye eventually convinces himself that he must have only imagined everything about the strange man. In the middle of the night, however, the alleged cousin attacks Ye with his tongue. In his desperation, Ye calls out to the god Guandi and begs for his help. Guandi intervenes just in time and stabs the man, or rather the monster, with a knife. The monster thereupon transforms into an oversized butterfly and disappears together with Guandi during a clap of thunder.

Curious to learn more? Just wait for the next newsletter!

How not to write…

The following examples are taken from various media that I encounter in my every day life at work and at home, in German and in English. These examples illustrate that there are many texts (and spoken words) out there that could have benefited from professional editing before they were published. I am not trying to expose anyone. Therefore, I only name the general genre or medium, not the person or the exact source who published these examples.

(Unfortunate) real world examples:

• DAILY PAPER:
  Etwa wenn sich ein Paar aus der eigenen Freundesgruppe plötzlich ein schickes Haus am Stadtrand kaufen, von dem man nie ewartet hätte, dass sie sich das leisten können [grammar: mismatch of singular noun with plural verb and pronoun]
• DAILY PAPER:
  Nach dem Ausstieg griff das Paar dann laut Bundespolizei die 41 Jahre Bahnmitarbeiterin und ihren zwei Jahre jüngeren Kollegen an. [grammar: word missing]
• SOCIAL MEDIA:
  Open from 6:15-1pm on the Capitol Square! You’ll find summer’s best at the market tomorrow. [style: inconsistent use of AM and PM]
• SOCIAL MEDIA:
  In just a few years, he has volunteered of 250 hours to Olbrich. [grammar: preposition]

What I’m reading in September:

Upcoming

September 2026

Writing and editing blurbs for books

This September, I’ll attend the next workshop for you: VFLL’s “Klappentexte schreiben und redigieren” (writing and editing blurbs for books). In contrast to the book manuscript itself, the blurb is actually a marketing tool and advertising text. Writing a blurb in a way that speaks to and convinces the target readers is harder than you might think. In order to better support you, I signed up for this useful workshop. Afterwards, I’ll be more than happy to share my newly acquired knowledge with you right away so that your book project will benefit, too!

Interested in my editing services?

How about my new ice breaker deal?

If you would like to get to know my style of working as an editor, an ice breaker trial edit is the way to go. If you book the ice breaker deal, I will edit your text for exactly one hour. Afterwards, I return the edited text to you and we discuss my feedback for you in a phone or video call. Interested? Contact me today!