Button Belle Monthly Review: May 2024
Welcome, fellow writers, editors, and language enthusiasts! It’s that time of the month when I get to yap all about what I’ve been up to.
May seems to have absolutely flown by; I can’t believe it’s been over a month now. Only last review, my services had barely been active for a week.
Let’s find out together exactly what the month of a full-fledged editor looks like, shall we?
WHAT I’VE BEEN WORKING ON…
Baby’s first project and impostor syndrome.
I celebrated the beginning of May as it aligned perfectly with completing my first pass on my first-ever project. Obviously, my work was far from over, but I was excited nonetheless.
Reaching the end of my first project for the first time? Ecstatic doesn’t even begin to cover it.
This month has taught me much about how I’d like to go forward with my editing methods in the future. While I do know my stuff, and I believe that I can edit to a high standard, the first project has served to highlight areas in my approach that could be streamlined for ease of work—both for me and the author I’m working with.
I found myself very often flip-flopping between focuses during the editing process, especially during that first pass. Due to this, I started to work on putting together a checklist template for me to use in my future edits, which I intend to tackle one at a time, as opposed to allowing my focus to jump around.
I’m excited to take on my next project and put my new approach into action.
*
Once I finally hit send on my last email to the author I edited for this month, doubt started to creep in. Despite my qualifications, I started to think some very unhelpful things. Like: What if I totally ruined their writing? What if I had made stupid edits that made it make no sense? What if I’m just a fake?
My first cry of the job happened on the day I finished my first project. It’s bound to happen.
Nobody tells you that no matter how well-equipped you are to handle a job, there’s a very high chance that you come away from that job anxious that you did it horribly.
Thankfully, the author I worked with this month was an angel sent to save me from myself. They were so thankful for the work I put in and for the insights I gave throughout the editing process. I was absolutely over the moon to hear that.
I hope I’ll get the chance to work with them and other such authors in the near future.
WHAT I READ
…and what’s up next.
My first read of the month was the wonderful Dead Things Are Closer Than They Appear, by author Robin Wasley.
This was an absolutely captivating read and it makes me so glad that I stumbled upon her promotional material on Twitter towards the end of last month. It was an immediate Must-Buy for me—and it did NOT disappoint.
Within the past few days, I received a signed copy of Landis by Shelly Mack, which I am immediately picking up to devour this month.
I’ve now been active for business for a full month and it’s been absolutely everything I could’ve dreamed of and more. The future is bright and exciting!
I’ll see you next week in a blog post where I will discuss the impact of word choice, so if you find that you struggle to use powerful language in your writing, it could be the blog post for you! Until then:
Keep practising, keep learning, and most importantly, keep writing!
