Jenny O'Brien

I recently spoke ill of “The Elements of Style,” a mostly useless little book known by some as “Strunk & White.” I’m aware that some folks find value in Strunk & White, which is fine. Some folks like ketchup on hot dogs. To each their own. If you’re an editor or other lover of words and grammar, I suggest these alternatives: ✏️ “Garner’s Modern English Usage” by Bryan Garner ✏️ “Dreyer’s English” by Benjamin Dreyer ✏️ “The Joy of Syntax” by June Casagrande You can find those titles and more in Dragonfly Editorial’s field guide titled “Must-Read Books for Copy Editors.” (Link in comments.) You’ll notice, out of respect for the classics, we include Strunk & White, with the following disclaimer: “Because of the book’s age, many editors might find its usefulness limited in their day-to-day work and a fair amount of its advice to be strict and outdated. Nonetheless, its historical significance is undeniable.”

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Most writers don’t fail because of bad ideas. They fail because their writing is too damn heavy. In the 1920s, Edwin Perkins had a thriving little mail-order business( that he ran out of the back room of the local post office). One of his bestsellers? A liquid concentrate called Fruit Smack. But there was a problem. Shipping glass bottles was expensive. They broke. They leaked. Customers complained. Instead of giving up, Perkins reimagined the product. What if the flavor could be condensed into powder? Small, light, and easy to ship. That pivot created Kool-Aid. A product so simple kids could mix it themselves. Cheap. Portable. Scalable. What does this have to do with writing? Your ideas are the “Fruit Smack.” If they’re too heavy, too complicated, too hard to deliver—your readers won’t stick around. The fix. Do what Perkins did. Strip it down. Make it portable. Create writing so clear and easy to consume that anyone can “mix it themselves.” Because great businesses—and great writing—aren’t built on complexity. They’re built on ideas packaged so well, they spread. So next time you write, ask yourself: Have I made this easy enough for my reader to consume every word. Every sentence. Every paragraph.

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What an author sees when they get the copyedit back: the story's timeline laid out neatly in the style sheet, the manuscript comments noting timeline issues, and an editorial letter detailing major inconsistencies and potential solutions (if needed) What an author doesn't see: the chaos, the calendars, the cross-referenced websites, the tears

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Authors, a few reminders as the "rush to publish" before the end of the year begins: 📚 Editors and proofreaders book services in advance. Many do not accept rush jobs or "squeezing in" extra work. If you find someone you jive with to work on your book expect that you may have to wait to work with them. 📚 If you're waiting, use that time to draft and revise. Find some trusted free sources to read your book and provide feedback. Friends and family members can be great if you've never had any feedback. Critique groups or partners, or even beta readers, may give you more critical feedback. Both types of feedback are valuable. 📚 Make a plan for publishing. Unless you're a rapid-release author (and those folks are a particular brand—they have their process down pat), you're going to need to plot out your publishing timeline over at least 6 months, especially if you're a first-time author and you're learning the ropes as you go. 📚 Ignore the temptation to rush. I know it feels like you have to get your book into the world right now, but really, you don't. Take your time. You'll thank yourself for it after publication when you have a quality book to show for it and reviews to match. --- Hi, I'm Sarah. 👋 I'm a freelance fiction editor and proofreader. Can you tell I've encountered some authors in a rush to publish lately? 😉 Now booking manuscript reviews, line/copyediting, and proofreading for October through the end of the year. If you're a fantasy, sci-fi, mystery, or romance author desiring to publish a high-quality book, let's chat! 👉 www.sarahfraps.com/contact Image by Stephen Phillips on Unsplash

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One of the fastest ways to lose trust as a freelancer? Missing a deadline. It’s not just about the single article, design, or project you didn’t deliver on time. When you blow a deadline, the ripple effects are bigger than you might realize: 1. The editor’s calendar gets thrown off. Content schedules are often planned weeks or even months in advance, with your piece slotted into a specific spot. If it’s not there, something else has to shift. 2. The editor looks bad to their boss. Your missed deadline doesn’t just reflect on you, it reflects on the person who assigned you the work. Now they’re scrambling to explain why a hole exists in tomorrow’s lineup. 3. The entire organization feels it. From social media managers to email marketers to design teams, content is a domino chain. If one piece doesn’t fall into place, the rest of the chain wobbles. The truth is, reliability is just as important as talent. Editors remember the freelancer who turns things in early, just like they remember the one who left them hanging. If you want consistent assignments, deliver consistently. Deadlines are more than dates, they’re promises.

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How can someone effectively combine writing and editing skills to make a good living? By establishing what I call a "hyphenated career": becoming a writer-editor! In my book THE BUSINESS OF STORYTELLING (link in the comments), I talk about how to create a writer-editor career, where you use what you learn as a writer to reinforce the editing side of your career and vice versa. For those of us who enjoy taking on a variety of projects in our work, a hyphenated career can be a source of fulfillment and growth (both personal and career-related). I've always said I'm a better editor because I'm a writer, and I'm a better writer because I'm an editor. The other day, a reader contacted me and said she was a different kind of hyphen: a bookseller-writer. I loved that! Her deep understanding of what readers enjoy reading makes her a better writer, and her understanding of writing and literature makes her a better bookseller. A friend of mine is a great beta reader/big-picture editor because she's also a visual artist ("Even painters info-dump," she says.) I love the idea of there being all kinds of hyphenated careers possible for writers and editors. In the end, it's the interplay between your skills that can help you earn more money both as a writer and as an editor. ****** ✨I'm Jennifer Lawler, from Club Ed Freelancers 🌴🌴🌴 🤔I help editors figure out what the hell they're doing 💡I've made all the mistakes so you don't have to 📚Connect with me for editing tips and talk You can ring the 🔔 above to be notified of new posts #bookediting #freelancing #novelediting

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Proofreading vs proof-editing: my take. When I started out, back in 2012, I found myself doing more than a traditional proofread. That meant I wasn't only correcting what was "wrong" (proofreading) but offering suggestions to make the text more readable (proof-editing). I work with marketing and comms teams, content marketing agencies, charities, organisations and small businesses, who don't work with editors. I'd be working on raw text – text that hasn't been professionally edited. My eagle eyes would be the first to see it. There was no in-house or external editorial process. "Do whatever needs doing” quickly became my standard proofreading practice because I WAS the process. What I was doing didn't feel like copy-editing because it was language-focused rather than content-focused. But it wasn't proofreading either. Still, marketing teams and comms agencies would ask me to: overhaul the clunky sentences I’d highlighted trim the text (because it had exceeded the word count) rewrite areas I'd politely noted were repetitive. Time was of the essence (when isn't it?), and they trusted me to improve their writing. Proof-editing involves greater collaboration because I work with you to make your/your team's writing sound even better than before. Now you could argue this comes down to semantics. If you're happy with my changes and suggestions, what does it matter what the service is called? That's all well and good if you're charging for the work you're doing. I wasn't, so I separated the services (not as soon as I should have, mind). Not all copy-editors are proofreaders. They're different skill sets. And not all clients will know the difference between proofreading and proof-editing. It's up to us to be clear on what we do and what we don't do. Meghan Downs at Jammy Digital says: "The standard of work wouldn’t be as high without Yasmin. We’re writers, not trained proofreaders or proof-editors. Yasmin gives me the peace of mind not just that the work’s been done, but that it’s been done to a better standard.” 👏🏻 Here's some cool doodle art by the talented Amy Nolan. Couldn't believe my luck when I spotted this on her site. 🤡 I promise I bought it from her. I'm not using this ILLEAGALLY.

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Obviously, never lead with an adverb*. Fiction writers are generally advised to avoid leading with adverbs—not because it's always "wrong," but because overuse or misplaced adverbs can weaken prose by telling rather than showing, or by slowing narrative pace. The most common critique is that 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗼𝗻𝗴𝗲𝗿, 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗰𝗶𝗳𝗶𝗰 𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗯𝘀 𝗼𝗳𝘁𝗲𝗻 𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝘃𝗶𝘃𝗶𝗱 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗰𝗶𝘀𝗲 𝘀𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲𝘀, making adverbial openings redundant or even distracting. 𝗞𝗲𝘆 𝗽𝗼𝗶𝗻𝘁𝘀 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝘄𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘁𝘀: • Use adverbs purposefully—   when they add clarity or nuance the reader wouldn’t otherwise get from the verb alone    • Leading with an adverb (example. "Instantly, Max leapt at the intruder.") can rob the action of its surprise or immediacy, because it tells the reader how they're supposed to experience it.   Removing the adverb can make the prose feel more dynamic: "Max leapt at the intruder."    • Replace adverb-verb combinations with a single strong verb whenever possible ("hurried" instead of "walked quickly").    • Adverbs are not totally banned—   they can be the most efficient or effective way to communicate timing, mood, or frequency, especially when modifying clauses or whole sentences rather than verbs ("Suddenly, the lights went out."). (I started this post with such a word.) 𝗕𝗼𝘁𝘁𝗼𝗺 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲: Fiction writers should avoid formulaically leading with adverbs, but they can do so when it serves clarity, pacing, or style. As with all writing tools, use them intentionally, not as a default. * This is word humor, heh.

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Last year I didn’t know what a ghostwriter was. Now I’ve ghostwritten for the CIO of a $1.2B cloud company, an L&D thought leader, and a SaaS CEO. If I could tell Last Year Me everything I've learned, here’s what I’d say: 𝗠𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗺𝗲𝗲𝘁. By definition, people who need ghosties are too busy to write. But you still need regular chats. 30 mins a month is enough if you use the time wisely. Prepare. Listen. Push for intriguing angles. 𝗥𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁 𝗺𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀. Execs share personal stories, failures, and challenges with ghostwriters that most people would only tell their therapists. You need a good foundation of trust for that to work. Create a space where they can workshop ideas without fear of judgement. 𝗦𝘁𝘂𝗱𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗿 𝘃𝗼𝗶𝗰𝗲. Collect clips of them speaking - podcasts, interviews, and voice notes - to learn their voice. But remember to comfort-check this with them. “Write how you speak” is all over LinkedIn, but it’s not always true. 𝗖𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗧𝗼𝗩 𝗰𝗵𝗲𝗮𝘁𝘀𝗵𝗲𝗲𝘁𝘀. Make a one-pager for each client with a summary of their voice, followed by their favourite rhetorical formulas, words and phrases, and broader structural patterns. At the bottom, add a checklist of questions to ask yourself before you hit send. 𝗜𝗻𝘀𝗽𝗶𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗯𝗲 𝗲𝗻𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗱. Ideas rarely plop into people’s minds fully formed. Talk to each thought leader about where their inspiration will come from. This could include dinners, events, conferences, customer calls, sales data, webinars, and news in their industry. 𝗙𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗿 𝘂𝗻𝗶𝗾𝘂𝗲 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲. This is what their audience will remember them for. Ask what hills they’d die on - and why. Where does their thinking differ from the mainstream? Have they coined any concepts or methodologies? One of my clients shared an 18-page manifesto he's written about the future of his industry which literally gave me goosebumps. That stuff is gold dust. 🤩 Trying on different tones of voice for size is pretty much my retail therapy at this point. I’ve learned SO MUCH over the past year, and I’m excited to learn more. So tell me... 👻 𝗜𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂’𝗿𝗲 𝗮 𝗴𝗵𝗼𝘀𝘁𝘄𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗿 - what would you add to the list? 👻 𝗜𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂’𝘃𝗲 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝘂𝘀𝗲𝗱 𝗮 𝗴𝗵𝗼𝘀𝘁𝘄𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗿 - what did they do that you loved? 

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