I’m the queen of typos. When I’m writing, I type so fast that the letters just fly off my fingers, and since I’m not a very good proofreaders of my own work, many of those typos go unnoticed unless someone else points them out for me. Thank god I have a great editor on hand to read through most of my work. Still, typos sometimes get through.
Once, I was typing up a document for my great-aunt. She wanted send her doctor an official letter about something or other, but didn’t even have a typewriter, let alone anything capable of work …read more

Yesterday, I posted about big grammatical blunders and mentioned that I have an editor who looks at my work before I send it to clients. He’s really more of a proofreader, actually, since most of what he does is pick up typos and similar errors. This raises an important question, though: As a freelance writer, should you partner with an editor to ensure that clients get a clean copy of your work?

The answer isn’t a clean cut-and-dry yes or no. Here’s my advice:
Yes, hire an editor if…

You have writers working under you and don’t want to proofread all of their …read more

(www.thegoldenpencil.com)
Arghhhh. I’ll never finish this d**n book! At least it almost feels that way. This morning when I started I had about 30 pages to go. Now hours and hours later I’ve still got 16 pages to go. It keeps growing! I’ve gone from a 20,000 word count a week or two ago to over 31,000 – yikes that’s a lot of writing. I didn’t realize I’d done that much!
But it all needs to be done! The book is better for it. Pant pant pant. I feel like I’m chasing these last few pages.
Oh well, back at it.
Write well and …read more

(www.thegoldenpencil.com)
Hi Anne,
Is it my imagination or do you NOT publish ads from those outfits that sell term papers to students? I’ve noticed several of them on the boards I check, but not on yours.
How come?
BG
Hi BG,
Great eye! Or are you checking up on me?
Seriously, I think the term paper mills are just one more example of unbridled capitalism. Students should write their own darn papers and I try not to support those people who I think are exploiting them.
On the other hand, a student who is looking for editing or coaching to get papers written is another story – I …read more

I’ve heard writing teachers say it, and I’ve heard magazine editors say it: “Throw out the first three paragraphs!”
What in the world are they talking about?
The truth is, even for professionals, the first couple of paragraphs, if you’re writing an article, or even the first chapter if you’re writing a book, is likely to be dreck. I’m not sure why. It’s almost as if the mind has to warm up somehow, maybe by writing some semi-coherent sentences, or even a full paragraph or three or four before the good writing kicks in. I know it often works this way …read more

Back when I had a studio, I was drowning in paper. Guess what? Now that I’m in a two-bedroom, with one bedroom as my office, the problem hasn’t gone away… it’s just spread out more.
Back at the studio, I worked with Jennifer Hofmann of MyOrganizedBiz and Inspired Home Office She helped me solve multiple organizational problems, and one solution stood out. I had a project of my own I was working on and I kept forgetting it amidst the work I was doing for clients. The solution was a bright red file folder that would sit in my line …read more

Are you afraid to get your book written? That’s such a rude question! Yet I find probably one out of every four or five people who contact me about getting a book written are actually so afraid of the project it never happens.
My own experience with fear says that the sooner I face it the better. I suspect the same thing is true when it comes to writing books. If you honestly take a look at your fear and discover what it’s all about, you’re likely to be able to let it go and get your book written.
I’ve written an …read more

Okay, I wouldn’t want to do anything else. I love writing, ghostwriting and coaching writers. But darn! Sometimes writing, rewriting and editing is just plain boring.
Yesterday and this morning, I went through a 20,000 word manuscript. All sorts of small things showed up, like extra spaces, words that needed to be changed and punctuation clarified. I’ve made my edits on paper with pen. If I had an assistant I’d just hand it to him, but I don’t. Of course, as I edit, I’m also adding some of the clients business rules to the document, and I’m finding some things I …read more

Over in our forum we had a question about how long to wait for a client’s response to an email. As I understood it, the writer had a new client who hadn’t responded to an email for a couple of days. The writer had started to panic a bit and wondered what to do.
There were all sorts of suggestions but as it turned out, by the next day the client had responded.
In this day and age of email, and instant messaging, we’ve come to expect a quick response from everyone. But not everyone works at that speed. I’ve got …read more

If you’ve been following this blog for awhile you know I’ve been working on a new site. One of the goals of that site is to begin to offer teleclasses around book writing and book publishing.
On Tuesday, May 29th at 3 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time – 6 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time I’ll be offering a Visioning to help people get clear about the book they want to get written.
You can get details and sign up here: http://writingwithvision.com/offers/visioning.htm
Write well and often,

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