If anyone is in need of an editor or proofreader, I am happy to offer my services. I am an avid reader and have been writing for most of my life. I also hold a BA in Creative Writing from Knox College, which is nationally recognized for its prestigious undergraduate writing program.
Due to various circumstances, I currently work in a field that has very little to do with writing and am looking to build up my resume with more current writing and editing experience. As long as you don’t mind if I list it on my resume, I would love to edit your work.
With that said, I do currently work full-time, so I would only be able to take on projects in my free time. If you are under a time constraint, please let me know upfront and I will see what I can do. Otherwise, I will do my best to complete work in a timely manner.
Hi there! I’m happy to see you’re interested in editing ChoiceScript games. It’s surprisingly fun and rewarding to dig into the full text of these games and help them sparkle. You may want to consider setting some boundaries for yourself, though, especially if you’re offering to do it for free. There’s more variation in Hosted games, but regular CoG works are a minimum of 100k words and are tending towards 500k words and up these days. That takes a good chunk of time to edit.
Also, there are many unique aspects to editing game code, even if CS is more intuitive than other programming languages. Making sure gendered variables agree with the verb tenses (s/he runs vs. they run) and making sure dialogue flows correctly over goto’s and gosub’s take up a significant portion of my copyediting time. So, you should make sure you’re familiar with the basics of how the code works.
Furthermore, there are many different levels to editing, from a full writing partner suggesting revisions to the story arc to very light copyediting, just ensuring the em dashes and ellipses use the right format and there aren’t any obvious spelling errors. You may want to think about what level you’re comfortable with and being upfront about it so the author knows what to expect.
Lastly, you may not need to offer your services for free to build your resume! If you haven’t already, you may want to contact Choice of Games to see if they’re looking for more freelance copyeditors. They have a test that’s also very educational in what you’re going to see while editing these games, plus they have helpful style guides and instructions to focus your efforts. Plus, they’re really great people to work with.
For the time being, yes. Once I have more experience editing CoG/HG stories, that will likely change. But I want to make sure I’m worth what I would be charging.
That’s definitely solid advice, and I think you’re probably right. Once I have a few projects under my belt, I will likely start charging for my services.
Wow-! The fact you’re willing to do such a thing for free is surprising. Part of me is tempted to take you up on your offer but I’d feel terrible about you doing so for free, despite how little of my horrendous writing there actually is at this moment.
Thank you for taking the time to provide such detailed advice, I truly appreciate it! You make some excellent points. I will take all of this into account going forward. Thank you!!
If you would like to commission me to edit your work, I certainly wouldn’t object! At the moment I’ve probably taken on as many free projects as I can for the near future; but if you’re open to paying me for my time, I would make time. If that’s something you might be interested in, could you send me the first few pages of your work? If you like my edits, we could talk more about finding a price that would be fair to both of us.
Oh, don’t worry about it! I should save this for the future, but you’ve got enough on your plate just doing free edits. It’s super cool what you’re doing though, you’re definitely a lifesaver for those writers❤
I’m astonished you’d be willing to do this for free. As tempting as it is to take you up on this offer, I think you should consider asking for a bit of money. It’s a huge amount of work to take on for no pay.
Thank you to everyone who took the time to reach out. At this time, I’m no longer taking on new projects. I’ve been commissioned to work on a new installment of a game, and that is taking top priority. If things change and I find I have more free time, I’ll be sure to update the post. Wishing everyone the best of luck with their games!!
