My mother had a love affair with the English language. Grammar and punctuation were the building blocks on which to build beautiful syntax. The nuance of correct word choices was so important that she would not own a thesaurus since “no two words mean the same thing and its important to use the word you mean”. (I use a thesaurus to remind me what other words might be similar). Our bedtime stories were mostly epic poems and classics mixed in with my mom’s own stories.
My love of reading literature and mysteries also came from my mother. The little voice in my head when things aren’t in proper English comes from her too. She was always a stickler for efficiency and clarity as well. The telling could take a while, but each piece needed to make sense and add to the overall story.
I have learned the importance of making text readable from writing and editing for the web for over 15 years, formatting and editing talks and handouts for world-class speakers, and teaching reading and study skills.
Being left and right brained means I like the technical side of creation as much as the artistic side, and in many ways, I am better at it.
I am still a web designer – web developer and have been since 2004. I love the web! I love designing for it, coding for it and helping others understand it (to the extent that they want to). I am still excited at all there is to learn.
The most important thing in a website, though, is the content. While it’s very important to have an attractive site that works flawlessly, the content must connect with the audience, answer their questions, and overcome their concerns or objections. That is really true with any content.
Branching into editing followed an inquiry from a friend to edit another friend’s 85,000 word fiction manuscript. It was a challenging eye-opener. While I expected the manuscript to merely need copy editing, or possibly line editing as well, it needed full developmental editing too. I realized how much I loved seeing the process of the rough work being reshaped from a block of marble into a statue by chipping away at “that which was not David”.
If your work needs another set of eyes to craft, caress and mold, please contact me to learn more.