I finally found my word of the year! I have mixed feelings on the idea of transformation and change, but I hope for a lot of positive transcendence in 2026. 💖 Seeing the different words or phrases that will guide people through a new year has always been inspirational to me. Do you have yours yet?

I finally have this beauty in hand! ♥️ I never thought I’d be this excited about a new dictionary, but it’s a lot of fun to explore. And it’s so cool (nerdy) that I follow a bunch of the editors who worked on this and know their names. 😅📖 • #MerriamWebster #Dictionary #Nonfiction #Bookstagram

I LOVED this message in a recent newsletter from @samanthaanderl. It’s tempting to aim big and make long lists of new year goals. I’ve done it before and, unfortunately, always become overwhelmed and abandon them by mid-January. These days, I enjoy…(cont’d)

“Regardless, and make no mistake about it, IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE is a tremendously dark film. It traffics in the language of tragedy, noir, even outright horror at times.”

I’m a freelance nonfiction copyeditor and writer booking for Winter 2026. If you have a project you’d like some help with, get in touch! I offer free sample edits up to 1,000 words (for full manuscripts), as well as 15-minute discovery calls to discuss your needs. 💻📖🖊️

We rely on many different resources besides our own knowledge. Editors need training to work with a writer’s writing, building their skills and experience as they go along. But we don’t know everything! So, it’s important to have many reference resources and software tools in your toolbox.

A short and sweet one today. 🧡 Do the hard thing! • I’m a freelance nonfiction copy editor and writer, now booking for Winter 2026. If you have a project you’d like some help with, get in touch! 💻📖🖊️ • #Freelance #Editor #FreelanceEditor #EditorForHire #Copyediting #EditingCommunity #AmEditing

I keep meaning to post this wonderful gift from my partner for my birthday last month: a stunning edition of the first Winnie the Pooh book from @foliosociety ❤️🍯 Would you believe I’ve only ever read The House on Pooh Corner? • #Bookstagram #Instabook #BooksOfInstagram #WinnieThePooh #AAMilne

If I took away anything from the #RedPencilConference this past weekend, it was this gem of a reminder from Laura Burge. Finding a working style that works for you can take some time, but once you do, don’t let anybody tell you it’s weird or wrong or inefficient. 🩷 Have a great week!

#RedPencilConference Let’s goooo! 🎉 @edsguild.bsky.social

I just sent an inquiry and got a reply from an editor whose last name is Pond. For some reason I found that utterly charming.

My friend @judylmohr.com has a course starting in January for writers! Check it out. 😄 payhip.com/b/zYSRf

The kind folks at Editors Tea Club permitted me to write a blog post of editor biographies and memoirs! It was great fun to write and I’m so happy with how it turned out. 🫖📚 www.editorsteaclub.org/blog-posts/s...

Editing myth: We’re waiting like vultures with our red pens, eager to tear your work to shreds. A podcast I listened to recently, said copy editors often introduce errors, try to rewrite your work, and flag things they shouldn’t.

A nourishing editing day means I'm not too overwhelmed by my tasks. It's one where I don't work more than five hours total, and one where I learn something new, either from the writing's contents or by looking something up. 📖 What does a nourishing editing day look like for you, fellow editors? 🤓

Apparently this is a pretty common quote, though I’d never heard of it! I can appreciate this objective, no-nonsense way of thinking about something you’re going back and forth on. But I also think telling someone to turn off their feelings can be easier said than done, especially for (cont’d)

Happy Punctuation day! {⁉️&;)*} Lots of bookish/bookish-adjacent days this week! What’s your favourite punctuation mark? Mine’s the ampersand! 💗&😁 • #Punctuation #Nonfiction #Freelance #Editor #FreelanceEditor #AmEditing #Bookstagram

Happy Tuesday! Many of us relish that idyllic, brief window in early September when we feel like students starting another semester. Even after you leave school, you get to have this feeling without the new year jitters and pressures of multiple courses and assignments every week.

this iconic advertising copywriter named Kathy Hepinstall Parks died over the weekend and I wanted to share something from her website I thought Bluesky would like

In other news I grabbed this at a family reunion crafts table and I’m OBSESSED with it. 😁💕

Happy Tuesday! I heard a concept on a podcast that really resonated with me. My business has been built, and continues to be built, on small windows of time between other work.

No, LinkedIn. A video editor is NOT the same thing as a copy editor. 🙃

Here’s a metaphor for your Monday! 🤓 Editors collaborate with writers to make their projects sing. We might suggest alternatives or point out where a reader may stumble, but on principle we will not change your voice. 💗 Have a great week!

I've always wondered about this! thehustle.co/why-its-near...

And keep in mind, Early Bird registration for the #EdsGuild2025 Red Pencil Conference will get you the best value on in-person, online, or in-person + online tickets—on now through 9/15! Video recordings of sessions are available for 6 months after the conference! edsguild.org/red-pencil-2025

Look you just have to make the cool weird shit that excites you. You must. In this world besieged by bland, scrubbed boring, computer slop, you must. Make the thing you’re embarrassed to make, the thing that feels “too much” because otherwise we get drowned in a sea of cowardly work made by a button

I've got four writing projects due at various stages this month and I'm really excited about them! What do you have going on that's got you hyped up to get to your desk at the moment? (I understand if it's nothing because summer, haha.) I'd love to hear!

I have some slots left for autumn so now’s the perfect time to get in touch! I work with short and long-form nonfiction documents, including books, chapbooks, blog posts, newsletters, website copy, recipes and cookbooks. You can reach me at choicewordsediting.com or [email protected].

Happy Tuesday, all! 👩🏻‍💻 My starting price for each service is on my website—all are subject to change. • [Image description: An infographic containing the starting prices for Choice Words Editing’s editorial services, which can be found on her website. End of description.]

I’m so full of gratitude for my clients, and for the experiences and support I’ve had along the way from colleagues, friends, and family. I have many hopes for this little solo business in terms of goals and growth, and can’t wait to see what the next five years bring. 💗

I love having so many exciting, happy little goals to do. I just don't enjoy the difficulty of picking which one to tackle first, and then not being able to concentrate and end up task-switching. Bonus: Distractions abound! Oh look, it's lunchtime.... #ADHDBrains

An interesting and thoughtful piece on publishing and waste. lithub.com/the-publishi...

Happy birthday, @jstor.bsky.social! You saved me while writing many an essay during my academic tenure. daily.jstor.org/all-grown-up...

Re-post from author Marjorie Simmins. Vancouver friends, and East Coast friends: I am delighted to be a guest on April Bosshard's podcast, Storycraft Conversations, tonight, May 27 at 5pm Pacific Time/9pm NS Time!

Happy Tuesday! ✨ I’m saying this as much to myself as to anyone who struggles with this: Stay gracious and be patient. Obviously we love it when good things happen right away, or better yet when multiple good things happen close together. You feel great, and you want to keep that feeling going.

I agree with this sentiment up to a point. You do have to put in work to get work but learning to love it can be SO hard, especially if you’re introverted.

Went looking for the sticky note I’d just put down and realized it was hidden in plain sight! 😅

Making something beautiful is never a waste of time. It’s so easy to write off leisure activities as unimportant or decadent because they’re not “productive” enough (enter toxic productivity culture).

It’s hard to maintain a positive attitude all time. Maybe your writing or pitches have been rejected (again), you’re having trouble finding a new job or client, or things are generally not going your way. Sometimes little rejections happen all at once [1/2]

I try not to do freelance work on the weekends, when possible, but I do enjoy that feeling of tapping in every once in a while for an hour or two to take care of stuff that will make the following week easier. [1/2]

Scrolling along, I glimpsed this cover and thought, “Wait— those are editor/proofreader marks!” So, nerd that I am, I had to rush to my indie and snap up this new release on the history of simplified spelling. 🤓

I don't know why, but here's something so cozy about putting in a load of laundry and doing a new course that might change your service offerings. 😅

I’m so happy to say that I’ve completed another course on editing recipes! 👩🏻‍🍳 I truly can’t thank Melissa Haskin enough for this wonderful learning experience. 😁 If you, or if you know of someone, who would like some help editing recipes or cookbooks, please get in touch! Happy Monday! ☀️

Lovely piece loaded with helpful hints if you're in an unfortunate reading slump. 📖 www.self.com/story/how-to...

A gorgeous article about my favourite colour. 💗 artuk.org/discover/sto...

I just saw The Fifth Season by NK Jemisin described as romantasy and I want to scream. The Fifth Season is a brilliant fantasy novel and it is NOT A ROMANCE. Not every fantasy book by a woman is romantasy! Stop adding "rom" onto every fantasy novel that happens to be written by a woman! #booksky

Douglas Adams said “I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by.” Sometimes I’m a bundle of nerves around deadlines, even though the bulk of my freelance work revolves around them. 😅 Anyone else have this trouble?

Have another bonus Halloween #StetPet! Here's Effie, #StetPet editorial assistant of Nova Scotia editor @choicewordsedit.bsky.social. "Most mornings I eat a banana, and she gets little bites. If I don’t happen to have one, she’ll look up at me accusingly and with epic disappointment."

Meant to post this last week but here's a new autumn movie piece I wrote for Hard Copy Magazine. 🍂 www.hardcopy.online/culture/nora...

Interesting... www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...