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I haven’t posted here in a while. A long while. There’s one reason why: I went into full shutdown from freelance writer burn-out. I couldn’t even log into oDesk without getting a sick feeling in my stomach. The danger of destroying yourself from overworking is very real, and as part …

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Here’s a writing niche I hope takes off: Spoofs.

A spoof is an article or webpage you write as a satire, mimicking some otherwise serious subject. I didn’t even know there was a demand for this until someone asked if I could write ‘humor’. Turns out I can.

My first effort, …

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In this series, I’ve been trying to encourage providers of writing services to try editing. In this post I hope to illustrate the process with an example.
Over the transom.
I still hear the ‘plonk’. Even though it’s a virtual manuscript hitting my in-box, I hear the sound of a ream of paper falling solidly on my desk.

You never know exactly what you are going to get, but if you’ve done the prep-work well enough, you have a pretty good idea. The initial sample you received from the buyer and the subsequent discussion gave you enough information to set your rate. But there’s still the plonk.

Here’s an example:*

Creating a Healthy Mindset

Do you feel like you could have a healthier attitude toward life? Would you like to change your attitude or simply approach things in a different way? It can be difficult with all of the stressors in your life to lead a healthy lifestyle, but the way that it needs to start is through a healthy mindset. Many people think that they are just meant to be a pessimist or they just aren’t as optimistic as a lot of the other people in their life. You can achieve a healthy mindset; you just need to go about it in the right way.

How You Can Have a Healthier Mindset

Many people sit back and look at their lives and wish that they could look at things in a more positive manner. Instead of working toward being positive they beat themselves up for being negative or not having the responses or attitudes that they wish they would have naturally. This is a typical response, but it doesn’t do any good. Instead of getting mad at yourself for responding the way you do, go about the desire to have a healthier mindset in a positive way.

What the buyer had to say.
“It’s too smooshy, too loose. Can you punch it up and have it read better?”

A little Q&A revealed that this was written to be SEO friendly. The original writer had her hands tied. I explained the trade-offs between readable and machine readable. The key phrase was ‘healthy mindset’, and I promised I would try to keep as many instances as I could while still keeping in mind that actual humans were the target audience.

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If you are still nervous about taking on editing/proofing jobs (and you haven’t yet taken the oDesk test) here’s a resource for you: www.newsu.org. You can find free courses there- both general writing and one called “Cleaning Your Copy” which runs through the material found on the oDesk test. There is also a practice quiz that helps identify your weaknesses.
Spinning
There is an odd sort of job which pays very well if you can sell it. A buyer already has something readable (an ebook or a website or a sales letter) and they want it redone to change the tone or the target (by target, I mean the reader it is meant for).

It could be something they already paid for and published. It might be an article they got from the net. Although this is really a rewrite, you will find it posted as an editing job. From the buyer’s perspective, the material is usable and written well enough, it just doesn’t ‘fit’.

Be very careful here. If they wrote it themselves, they aren’t going to be happy when you call it the worst piece of junk you’ve seen in a year. Tread lightly.
First translate
Translate what they tell you into your own language.

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Changes isn’t just a David Bowie song.

Not one of us hasn’t had to make one or more changes to a project before a buyer would accept it.  It happens, sometimes it’s because the buyer was vague about what they wanted, sometimes it’s because they change their mind part way through, and sometimes it’s because they wanted something different from what I delivered.

As many of you know, I spend a fair amount of time on the oDesk Community boards, and one question I’ve seen come up more than once is whether or not you should charge the buyer for changes.  Some providers, especially new providers on their first job, are concerned that if they do not make the changes for free, the buyer will give them bad feedback and effectively blacklist them.

It’s a valid fear, especially when someone is just finding their feet and doesn’t feel confident about working within the oDesk system.

The problem is that except in one specific case, making changes for free simply devalues you as a provider.
You, your work, and your time are not free.

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In my first post, I talked about why you should consider editing and the general skills needed. This post is about what you are likely to see.
Native speakers
Native speakers of English are prone to different problems than foreign speakers. Here’s an example of something I edited that had already been purchased for an article job:
An intense study on toxins has come up with the very fact that toxins tend to make a significant alterations in the hormonal regulation of the body weight. Toxins play a pivotal role in altering the metabolic activities of the thyroid hormone and receptor function, thus giving rise to a much-reduced metabolic rate. In fact toxins can cause the body to gain an excessive over-weight. This is the main reason as to why toxic lifestyle and obesity epidemic are interrelated.
Detoxification is basically the process of removal of heavy and toxic materials from the body, more specifically from kidneys and liver plays a pivotal role in the effectual weight management. The prime reason that contributes to an obesity epidemic is the fact that in the current fast-paced life, we rely on the consumption of junk food and the maximum utilization of the automobiles that tend to make us the prime victims of the obesity.
The first thing that jumped out at me was the run on feel of the sentences. The writer has something to say, they just try to cram too much into each sentence. Removing some of the excess verbiage led to this as the corrected first paragraph:

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The Need
I’ve noticed a trend on oDesk and other contract writing sites. The trend is to hire as cheaply as possible and then either the buyer edits the material into something usable or hires someone else to do it. (And when they get someone else to take a second look, you can bet the posting will include the phrase, ‘easy job’.) In other words, some buyers set out knowing they won’t get a good product out of the box and hire writers based only on the lowest hourly rate. Editing is part of how they are thinking about the job.

Feeding into this same trend are first-time or amateur authors (of web sites, sales letters and content) who realize, after struggling with a project, the results aren’t what they imagined. They are also looking for editing services.

Finally, a still rare but growing area is ‘freshening’ a website. An older site has gone stale over time; the company or product has evolved or the website just gets a worn-out feel. Although I consider a new set of clothes rewriting, these jobs are seen by some buyers as simple editing.

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There’s a couple ways to look at doing commercial work:

1) A way to make money while you’re trying to hit it big. That’s the way a lot of people choose to see it whether it’s commercial writing, commercial art, or doing tedious copypasta database programming for Meglocorp Inc. Usually, people get into freelance fields because they have entertained the idea of being the next Hemingway, the next Rembrandt, or publishing the next World of Warcraft. It’s an admirable dream, and it’s not as far away from coming true as you feel deep down. It’s also not as close as you keep telling yourself it is every day.

A bit of encouragement is in order though. You can do what you want and get paid without Goin’ Out West. My friend just sold off his third screenplay and made six figures off of it. He’s just a delta-accented punk who put his nose to the grindstone and kept working at it for years. He doesn’t even see himself as anything special. The key, though, is that he put his head down and hands up–kept fighting. It worked for him in just a few short years.

2) The Valley of Broken Dreams (TM) (C) (XYZZY). This is where a startling majority of freelancers end up. I sometimes like to think of the commercial art fields as the place where dreams go to die. You always wanted to be a novelist or a painter, but you get caught up in the money and “just surviving”. Let me tell you: the years can go by very fast when you’ll start on that novel tomorrow.

I settled for survival until I had a wake-up call which told me that I don’t want to be limited. I’ve got something to say, and I’m going to make sure it gets crammed down the throat of as many English-speakers as possible whether they like it or not.

So, here’s some extracurricular activities which will both boost your freelance career as well as your dream career:

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It’s a simple question, do you answer your phone, or do you let it ring through to voicemail?  For that matter, do you leave voicemails or just send emails or texts?

When you’re running the oDesk client you usually don’t want to be interrupted.  It can be annoying to suspend and restart the client half a dozen times an hour because you keep getting interrupted.  Since six-year-olds don’t always leave Daddy alone even when they know they’re supposed to be asking their sister for anything they want, the temptation to ignore the phone when it rings is just that much stronger.
You might want to think twice before you do that, or at least check the caller ID.

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In a previous post, Becoming Invisible I mentioned some errors that shock readers out of the spell you are casting with your fine writing. I’ve accumulated more for my list and here they are.
Gaffs to avoid
These are mistakes I have collected from writing I have read or edited (and some I’ve made myself).

accept/except - She accepted (agreed to) the gifts, all except (excluding) the one from me.
principle/principal - The principle (rule) of parsimony was the principal (first, primary) reason I kept the article short.
discrete/discreet - The one means circumspect or prudent (discreet) and the other means separate from some group or category (discrete).
belief/believe - My belief (noun) is that you believe (verb) things I do not.
proceed/precede - To proceed is to continue or move on, precede means to go before in space or time, as an introduction might precede the main body of a book.
illusion/allusion - She mentioned the magician’s illusion (a false impression of reality) when making an allusion (implication or passing indirect reference) to how fake my passion seemed.
lay/lie - Lay is the action of placing something down (usually horizontally), while lie is the condition of being there. So, if I lay a book down on the table, it is lying there and it lies on the table.
to/too - The second means extremely, very, or in addition to. I am too (very) short for dancing and I am roundish too (in addition).
capital/capitol - Capitol is the building where the legislature meets, either in Washington D.C. or in a state. All the other meanings are capital.
then/than - Then is used for time and than is used in comparisons: I had more sense then (time) than (comparison) I have now.
accede/exceed - Accede means to agree to and exceed means to go beyond some measure or expectation.
access/excess - I had access to the secret vault where I found an excess of top secret documents.
all ready/ already - It’s already noon, are we all ready to go?
all together/altogether - We were all together on the train, although it was altogether too crowded to breathe.

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