Hendrik’s last blog post..Upcoming on CV

Lillie, thanks for telling me your experiences. I’m going to try to adopt your attitude when I get difficult writing. I’ll try to start looking at these projects as ‘my babies.’ Much better than gnashing my teeth everytime I come across a misplaced comma!

And Adam, thanks for the comment. If you’re interested, pick up one of the two books I mentioned and start learning the comma rules. They’re pretty definite rules, though some are up to the writer’s judgement.

I’ll be posting a copyediting quiz in the weeks to come. Fun!

Usually I work with inexperienced writers who have great ideas/stories and less-than-great writing skills.

The book I edited that won the EPPIE for general nonfiction this year began as two separate diaries written in Vietnamese by a husband and wife and translated into English by their daughter-in-law. She had come to the US from Vietnam only a few years earlier, so she wrote/translated as someone for whom English is a second language. Making the story easily readable and understandable in English while maintaining the Vietnamese voice was a challenge.

Two writers I’m currently working with actually had very little education. One had seldom attended school at all, and the other one, who is blind, learned very little in his special education classes.

I really like helping them turn a manuscript that in some cases is almost unreadable into a great story.

Although I have some clients who are excellent writers, most need a lot of help.