So. Had my first trial night as a copyeditor last night, and I'm still panic attacking about it. I got home at 11:05, but was still too wound up by 12:30 to get much rest. Woke up at 5:30 this morning with a migraine, complete with horrible nausea and pain stretching down into my face. Bleah. Broke down and cried in the shower.

It was fun. Really. I had a blast. What I'm worried about is the copyediting test the managing editor gave me; it was a really long, convoluted story that he wanted me to cut by 10 inches and rearrange/rewrite, and I don't think I did a very good job. I cut it down, but because I haven't done this kind of editing before, I feel like I took way too long at it and, in the end, did a really crappy job. I'm so upset about it. I hate doing poor quality work, and I'm so afraid that the editor will read it and think, "Why did I give her a chance?"

The rest of the night was so much fun, though: writing real headlines for today's stories, and proofing actual pages for this morning's paper and Sunday's arts and entertainment section.

I hope it goes well tonight; maybe I can redeem myself. I feel like I have an okay chance--if only because they're so short-staffed that they're snagging editors from other departments. They need people. Hopefully I can prove to them that it's worth it to give me a try.