What does a writer's best friend do?
Everyone could use an editor now and again. Even editors need other editors to help them polish their own writing. Each of us faces the world with such a unique, complex set of experiences, world views, biases, and understandings that we will undoubtedly sometimes miss the mark when trying to communicate with others. This principle is particularly true in the written word, which necessarily lacks the advantage of being accompanied by the facial expressions, tones, and gestures that could help assure that the communication would be received as it was intended.
Even if we painstakingly go over every single letter of what we've written, we will likely miss problems that someone else might notice at a glance. The fact is, our brains process information much more quickly than we read, so when we read over things we ourselves have written, our brains skip ahead and correct our mistakes--filling in background information, explaining unclear concepts, creating unstated transitions, even inserting missing words--because regardless of what actually appears on the page, we know what we meant to say.
What we need is a fresh pair of eyes, or rather, a fresh brain, to look at our work without all of the experiences, world views, biases, and understandings that we have unconsciously incorporated into it. Even after we have double-checked all of our facts and run spell-checker three times, we need the insight of an outsider--someone who is not inside our heads. Yes, we need someone who knows the rules of punctuation and can spot a misspelling a mile away, but more importantly, we need someone who is honest enough to tell us when he doesn't understand, to admit when she feels a statement is biased or closed-minded, to speak up when he finds something potentially offensive.
We need an editor. That's why an editor is a writer's best friend.
And that's where I come in.
My Experience
I've been freelance editing for since 2003, working with both fiction and nonfiction, academic and business writing, print publishing and Web publishing. I have also worked for two different publishers. Please see my list of Edited Publications for examples from the variety of genres in which I've worked.
I have a bachelor's degree from Brigham Young University in English, with an emphasis on editing and technical writing, and I also have a minor in editing*. Relevant coursework included
~ Grammar and Usage
~ Modern American Usage
~ Language and Linguistics
~ Editing for Publication
~ Writing About Literature
~ Teaching Writing
~ Studies in Language and Editing
~ Print Publishing
~ Several literature courses
~ Various editing internships, including textbook editing, scholarly editing, personal memoir editing, and religious editing
With my in-depth training and broad breadth of experience, I am the perfect person to make your text more eloquent, more powerful, more concise--whatever it needs in order to have the desired effect on the intended audience.
*Additionally, I earned a minor in Spanish Language, so I specialize in editing bilingual English/Spanish materials.
My Background
In truth my experience extends much further back in time than a college degree. Most of my early memories of my childhood involve books. Whereas many parents have to cajole their children away from video games and television programs, mine were constantly after me to put down my books. But my thirst for knowledge was unquenchable. As soon as my chores were done and my homework finished, I ran back to my literary world.
My mother took me to the public library every other week as I grew up, and each time I checked out as many books as my library card allowed. But each stack of new books would last only three or four days before I had to scavenge for other reading material. I worked my way through Herman Melville's Moby-Dick at the age of nine, and various volumes of the encyclopedia became my entertainment of choice when I couldn't find anything less dry. By the time I reached middle school I kept a notebook and dictionary on the windowsill next to my bed in order to write down and define all the new words I ran across in my voracious reading.
This early interest in reading introduced me to all sorts of plots, characters, and cultures, but it did much more than that. It introduced me to the beauty of the English language, and it taught me time and time again that the quality of the writing has an enormous impact on the written word's power to influence readers. From well-chosen words and well-turned phrases to well-crafted plots and arguments, I developed an eye for distinguishing the difference between highly polished writing and commendable attempts. And more importantly, I learned how to turn the latter into the former through careful consideration of audience and purpose as well as the rules of grammar and punctuation.
I would love to do this for you and your writing.
