All About Editing at Flights of Foundry
Photo by Unseen Studio on Unsplash
At Flights of Foundry back in April of this year, I attended and spoke on a few panels about editing and freelancing. While I still work a full time job, I have also taken on a lot of freelance editing projects, especially in the past few months. So these panels were helpful to me in getting some ideas of what I could and should be doing.
One of the super useful panels for me was “Organizing Freelance Life,” where the speakers talked about how they keep themselves organized when tackling new projects or multiple projects. They suggested brain dump lists to help you remember all the things you need to do, but with specialized checklists for each individual project. They also suggested having a backup plan when you schedule editing time, in case you’re not able to get the work done when you initially plan to complete it. And they also reminded the listeners of the importance of taking some downtime for yourself between projects–a weekend, even if it isn’t THE weekend.
I spoke on a panel called “The Business of Editing,” which focused on a lot more of the practical aspects of having an editing business, covering topics like finding clients, setting rates, and getting paid. Though we didn’t talk much about editing techniques on this panel (nor was there much talk about that on the freelance life panel), it was still very useful information for folks interested in pursuing a freelance editing career.
Finally, I attended a panel on developmental editing, since that’s one of the areas I feel least comfortable with. One suggestion that stuck with me here is the idea of asking questions of the author to help them find the solutions for the problems you might find while developmental editing. This is a different approach than many other sorts of editing, in which the editor is applying rules of grammar, spelling, etc., to a piece, and I think it’s why it can be a little more difficult for me–I know the technical side of editing well, while a lot of developmental editing can be a bit squishier.
Most of these panels will eventually be available to watch through the Dream Foundry YouTube channel, where you can find other panel recordings from past years as well!
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