Creative Writing does with words, what Graphic Design does with colour and shape: it crafts an impression.
This novella places the reader into the broken mind of a teenage girl who has suffered a head injury.
The reader’s vicarious experience brings an illuminating perspective from the inside, and also may be helpful for those seeking to understand someone who has similar struggles.
(For text samples and reader reviews, or to download your own free copy of the book, see its dedicated page here.)
Despite two computer repair companies reporting my iMac fine, sometimes it wouldn’t even complete start-up. This made its value effectively nothing, to the common user. Nobody wants a computer that doesn’t work. The machine would have value to troubleshooting hobbyists, but turning the head that audience would need an effective draw card. So the sales pitch would need to have a certain je ne sais quoi, just to get people to look at it.
It needed story.
Most listings for similar products (except, for ones that actually work) on NZ’s auction site TradeMe, accumulate approximately 100 page views before auction end. Yet because of its copywriting style, my listing for this ‘Infernal Mid-2011 iDevil’ drew the attention of ‘Cool Auction’ curators, who gave it a Home Page placement. There it garnered over 5,000 views, and kicked off flurried and amusing engagement in its Comments section.
(Unfortunately, bidding history and comments aren’t retained by TradeMe on expired auctions, but the auction story and the page view count is still visible on its listing page here.)
In the end, the iDevil was purchased and successfully exorcised, and now enjoys a quiet functioning lifestyle in the country.
Copyediting and Proofreading is when I check your piece of writing has its shirt tucked in, and that there is no toilet paper stuck to the bottom of its shoe, before you send it out the door.
Proofreading makes the smallest amount of interference in your work. I correct technical errors, such as spelling and grammar mistakes, and errors in punctuation or capitalisation.
(Whether I adhere to spelling conventions of British English, or of American English, will depend on your intended audience. I live in New Zealand, which uses British English spelling conventions — so that’s what I use for this website.)
Copyediting includes the corrections of proofreading, but it goes a little further — it also corrects issues with style, diction, and formatting. It enhances general readibility; it makes it digestible.
My recent copyediting projects have included client submissions to government bodies, and letters to tertiary education institutions.
*Please note: I do not evaluate long manuscripts for deeper issues of structure and organisation, nor will I make substantial re-writes or section removals. This depth of editing requires more than just a strong grasp of written English — it needs to be done by somebody with informed experience in current literary markets.
My 14-hour flight from Singapore to London was going to be awful. More awful than the usual kind of awful.
The interactive TVs in the seat backs were malfunctioning. Without in-flight entertainment, we could only sit still and vegetate. (Except for the guy behind me, who got drunk and disruptive, so was removed to First Class. I may still be bitter about that.)
In an attempt to provide preoccupation, the pilot issued a poetry contest—and two hours later, I was in possession of a prize of French wine, and was reading my poem into the glossy plastic Singapore Airlines telephone handset that broadcast me over their PA system*:
A fine example came to me,
about 10 Ks above the sea,
of how society would be
sans PS3 and MTV.
300 people northward flew
(plus or minus one or two)
when rose the state of what to do,
with naught to look at but the view!
And so it was on that day found
that evolution turned around.
There, jokes and chatter would abound—
the aircraft pulsing with the sound.
Faces glowed with woken smiles,
and people glided down the aisles.
So as the plane chewed up the miles,
we entertained ourselves a while.
But surely I would find accord
—despite comradery on board
that modern times could ill afford—
when I maintain that, man, we’re bored!
This is my favourite writing achievement to date; not gonna lie.
This is where I wear my Writing Hat and my Design Hat at the same time. (Because if I have two hats, then why not?)
I obtain relevant content information from my client, then appropriately copyedit that information to represent my client’s professional abilities in the best way! (Consider: Did you answer helpdesk phonecalls? Or, did you remotely resolve customer concerns?)
This example shows a CV I did for a client who was about to graduate in the field of Occupational Therapy. (Identifying information has been redacted, but you can still note its form and function by its replacement dummy text.)
This client later reported to me that their CV design was part of why they’d been given the job — the interviewer had said she’d been drawn to their application because all the relevant information was eye-catching, and she liked how it was concisely presented on a single page.
