Current work

Well, it's been a while since I posted a project list, so just for fun on a rainy Wednesday afternoon here goes. My current projects include:

- Critiquing a picture book
- Critiquing a historical adventure novel
- Copy-editing a fantasy novel
- Copy-editing and consistency checking two chicklit novels
- Proofreading an academic book
- Development editing a book on investing
- Development editing a book on persuasion
- Writing a book on freelancing

Oh, and at some point I need to get around to cleaning up my office, because I've eaten too many sarnies at my desk recently and my keyboard is rather crummy.

Updated website

Today I uploaded my revised website, which will hopefully be clearer for clients to navigate. The site's homepage (www.perfectlywrite.co.uk) now directs the visitor to two separate areas of the site:
- Book services (for authors and publishers): proofreading, copy-editing, development editing, book writing, ghostwriting, author mentoring and book critiquing.
- Business services (for companies, charities, government and so on): copy-editing and proofreading.
I've spent a couple of hours proofreading and checking for glitches, but no doubt I've missed some. I'll come back and check again in a week or two, when I'm less close to the material and can spot problems. For now, I'm very happy to close Dreamweaver, Photoshop and Illustrator because my strength lies firmly with words, not techy design work!

Proofreading aloud

Last night I printed off a couple of chapters of the book I'm writing, and I read some sections aloud to my husband to get feedback on the tone and flow. I was surprised just how many mistakes jumped out at me as I read, and it struck me that reading a hard copy of text aloud (slowly) really is the best way to proofread. The problem is, it's very time consuming, and a little dull for anyone who happens to be listening! I don't proofread this way for clients, but I think for your own writing - where you're prone to blind spots because you're too close to the material - proofreading aloud is a very good idea.

Blogging on a Saturday - get a life?

Yes, here I am, 10am on a Saturday and at my desk ready to start work. Friends are often appalled at the hours I work, but this is the life of a freelance writer and book editor who also happens to be a mummy! The beauty of freelancing is that you can fit it around the rest of your life. My son goes to nursery every week day, but for short days, so he still gets Mummy time. And then I do hours in the evening and at weekends depending on my mood and workload. And because I'm only 'open for business' to clients Monday to Friday, 9 to 3, I really enjoy working in the other hours when I can shut out the world, turn off the phone and email, and get lost in writing, editing and proofreading.

Today it's fun 'work' - writing content for my freelancing in publishing book. I'm getting to the end of my first draft, and will soon be ready to swap chapters with my co-author, Emma, and provide input for hers. Shaping a book is an incredibly long, involved, tiring process, but I love it. I'm already pondering new ideas for my next book. Unfortunately, the ideas seem to come at night-time at the moment, which is rather exhausting and inconvenient!

Work avoidance

Today has been a disaster. I set myself the task of writing half a chapter for my freelancing book - perhaps a little ambitious, but not impossible in the six hours I have to work while my son is at nursery. I've opened the Word doc, I've written some headings, I've even added in some keywords, and yet the doc is still alarmingly blank. The cursor is flashing at me in an accusing manner, and the autosave is periodically saving diddly squat.

Instead of getting stuck in, today I've been taken over by a nasty gremlin known as 'work avoidance' which has had me making cups of tea, putting a wash on, doing some admin, making a couple of calls and - oh - writing this blog.

It amazes me after all these years as a writer and ghostwriter, I still struggle with writer's block. It's not that I have nothing to write, it's simply that now and again the task of writing daunts me. Sometimes - especially if the clock's ticking on a deadline - I push on through and invariably find once I get started I'm away and running. But on a day like today, I just give in to the malaise and accept that I'm about as creative, energetic and directed as a drunken wood louse.

Latest news

I'll gloss over the fact I've been incredibly shoddy at keeping up with this blog (okay, I abandoned it completely in favour of spending my time watching True Blood, drinking cab sav and building Duplo towers for my son to knock down), and will move swiftly on to Perfectly Write's news.

Last year I set up a dedicated book critique website at www.bookcritique.co.uk, which once more challenged my skills in Dreamweaver to the point of rage/tears/despression.

And amid such web design efforts (quite literally) and a great range of projects - from ghosting the memoirs of a phone sex worker to developing books like Anger Management For Dummies (handy!) – I've finally started work on my book: the co-authored title How to Succeed as a Freelancer in Publishing (published by How To Books, autumn 2010). I'm enjoying the writing process, and the experience of co-authoring with the lovely Emma Murray. No doubt I'll share plenty more about the book in future blogs.

Back to work

Well, I'm glad to say I'm finally back into the swing of things and happy to be working on proofreading, copy-editing and copywriting projects again.

And I have plenty of exciting business developments in the pipeline - including a dedicated book critiquing business and co-authoring a book on how to succeed as a freelance proofreader, copy editor and/or writer.

And I'm somehow still finding time to play endless games of peek-a-boo with my son...