Writing   |   Books    |   Creativity

Hi, my name is Debbie and I’m a freelance copyeditor.

I love books. When I was a little girl, I dreamed of having stacks of Little Golden Books piled up like columns in our living room. By the time I turned eleven, I dreamed of collecting all the Nancy Drew books. As an adult, I fell in love with romance. I wanted to have shelves lined with romance books. I still do, only now, I want those shelves to be filled with romance books autographed by authors I know, with a dedicated section to books I’ve edited.

I also love writing. I’m currently working on a romantic suspense series. There’s also a seed of a superhero series starting to brew in my head.

I critique for fellow romance authors. They send me the manuscripts they are currently working on, and I make suggestions on both the grammar and the story. I’ve been critiquing for quite a while now.

I also judge writing contests, and in doing so, I give detailed feedback to the author, both on grammar issues and any story issues, same as I do in critiquing. I take pleasure in making suggestions that could actually help the author succeed, and I’m greatly satisfied in the end.

The combined satisfaction of all of these experiences have led me down a path to copyediting. I’ve come to realize that I enjoy improving grammar. Yes, I’m correcting, but in some instances, I think of it more as “improving” because certain things are actually not exactly incorrect but could be better. Of course, there are always the things that are absolutely, totally, and definitely incorrect and need to be corrected. It’s a mixture of correcting, improving and sometimes even manipulating grammar that makes the writing better—stronger—greater.

And to ensure a job well done—or just for fun—I continuously brushed up on my grammar through online classes. When I’m not taking any, I actually miss them. I really am a grammar geek, and I love it.