Editing

Friday:

Shopping and editing today. 

I am currently only editing my own novel, but I have worked as a professional editor. Last night an old colleague (ie I used to work with her, she's not old) texted me to say there was a job I might be interested in. But it was back in Canberra, she didn't know I'd moved. Still, it was nice of her to think of me. She was the president of the local editing society at one time, and she'd got me work before. Boring government work - much better paying than my freelance fiction editing business!

The last job I did with her was at the Department of Immigration (Australia). Our task was to turn their entire website into "plain English". This was particularly important considering a lot of the users had English as their second or third language. But the trouble we had! We'd write our translation of department jargon into plain English and send it to each section to be approved. Often as not it would be returned changed exactly back to the original! No compromise at all. Our contract there kept getting extended because of all the back and forth, and in the end I left saying I had a prior commitment, but actually it was mainly that my RSI was returning with the longer hours we were working.

And I thought fiction writers had to be handled with kid gloves...