Back to work

Well, I'm glad to say I'm finally back into the swing of things and happy to be working on proofreading, copy-editing and copywriting projects again.

And I have plenty of exciting business developments in the pipeline - including a dedicated book critiquing business and co-authoring a book on how to succeed as a freelance proofreader, copy editor and/or writer.

And I'm somehow still finding time to play endless games of peek-a-boo with my son...

Back in business...

Hello world! Happy New Year.

Not long now until I'm back at my desk and taking a break from nappies, drool and gurgling (my son's, I hasten to add, not mine) to get back to writing, editing, proofreading and critiquing - hooray!

Perfectly Write will be open for business again in March, and I will be working at my usual capacity.

Look forward to hearing about new projects late Feb/early March.

Charlie :)

Perfectly Write takes a break . . .

Well, the time has finally come: I’m now officially on maternity leave and am not taking on any further work for a few months. Yes, I’m taking off my editor/writer cap and swapping it for a ‘new mum’ one.

After years of concentrated hard work on Perfectly Write, I’m stepping back and taking some time off. Not for a well-earned rest though – I have a feeling my baby son will keep me just as busy as my business has done for years now!

I’ll be back to work early next year, no doubt eager to take a break from nappies and get back to writing and editing.

So to all my clients, I wish you happiness and success for the second half of 2008, and look forward to working with you again in 2009.

Now, where did I put Parenting For Dummies . . .

Bought and brought

Another source of confusion for many writers. Here's the lowdown: bought is the past participle of the verb to buy. Brought is the past participle of the verb to bring.

Consider this sentence: Jamie brought some shoes from the shop. Some authors may use sentence this in the mistaken belief that they are describing Jamie buying shoes. Actually, the sentence tells us that Jamie was bringing shoes, not buying.

Remember, bring and buy leads to brought and bought.

Lack of clarity

A problem that I frequently address in my editing work is unclear writing. For example, consider the following: Steve and Matt slipped out by the back door. He shut the door quietly. Can you spot the question this example raises? Who is 'he' in the second sentence - Steve or Matt?

Often, when you write you get caught up in the world you're depicting, and you can forget that the reader isn't inside your head, seeing exactly what you see. You know exactly who shut the door, and your mind assumes the reader does too.

The simplest remedy for such lack of clarity is to read your writing back to yourself slowly, and when you come to pronouns (e.g. he, she, it, they), think carefully whether you need to clarify who exactly the pronoun refers to.

Whilst or while? Amongst or among?

There's no grammatical difference; it's simply a matter of choice. Whilst and amongst are fancy, formal styling; while and among are simple, plain English. So if you want to strike a friendly, modern tone, drop the st.

Lead or led?

Many people get muddled by these two little words. As a noun, lead can mean a metal or something Rover drags you along by on his daily walk. Notice the metal is pronounced 'led' and the dog's attachment 'leed'.

The verb form of lead is most likely to lead to confusion for writers. In the present tense, you say I lead, you lead, he leads etc, all of which are pronounced 'leed'. But in the past tense, the verb becomes I led, you led, he led etc, all of which are pronounced 'led'.

So, the sentence 'Jim lead me by the hand' is never correct - Jim either leads you or led you.