I edited a chapter about sugar addiction for a doctor to see if he liked what I can do. He did, so he hired me to edit the other nine chapters, too. WOO HOO!
Whoever he had write the draft that I received from him was too wordy and too impressed with him/herself as “author”. Yuk! I hate it when a writer does that. You can make a manuscript relational without coming across like an egotistical boor who’s too in love with wordiness and your own (obviously contrived) turn of phrase.
When I write, my mantra is “Write to express, not to impress.” People who set out to impress usually fail miserably. The simpler something is to get through, the more “impressive” it is. Alas, writers forget that all too often… especially newbies and wannabes…and this person was both.
Another gentleman is going to have me write blogs for him regularly if he likes the two I write for him this coming week. I’m supposed to get back with him on Tuesday to light a fire under him. (He had to bury a friend this weekend, so he won’t be back in the saddle again until Tuesday, looks like…) He found me on a pay-to-play freelance website (boo hiss) and wants to jump ship and work direct, but I told him we can’t since he connected with me there. The freelance service’s Terms Of Service say we have to stay within their interface for two years (and I have to pay the company 8.75%-15% of every project I do for him there) before we can fly solo unless he agrees to pay them a steep “finder’s fee”. He hates the company’s interface on his end. He says it’s really cumbersome. I’ve never worked from the buyer’s end, but I’ve heard the same complaint from a number of people, so it must be true. I can’t wait to wean myself off of the so-called “service”. It won’t be long now!
I don’t know why this is, but the first part of every month nearly always starts out painfully slow for me, work-wise, but then along about the 10th or 11th the projects start coming in. It’s a pattern that I can’t figure out and always a little nerve-wracking. The good news is that now I have ideas for ways to patch that ten-day hole in my schedule. I can schedule a seminar or two or several one-hour classes during the first ten days of every month. That should do it!
Today Sue Rebar and I rode the Orting Trail. Today was my third time this year. We’re going again in a few days so I’ve left the bikes in the SUV.
In June my cousin Patty Foxen Brubacher will be here for six or seven days (two of them with a friend on Whidbey Island). I saw her for one afternoon when I lived in Hollywood about 20 years ago…and before that, the last time I saw her was when we were teenagers fifty years ago. (We’ve always been separated by at least two states.) But whenever we manage to get together we always have a great time. I’m looking forward to it.
Guess that’s all for this time!
Hey, you might want to visit my other website, wordwhisperer.net. There are a lot of interesting insights there on my blog and on additional pages if you want to try to write your own copy or if you need to know more about me…
