Perfectionist qualities can help you be good at your craft but can also lead to paranoia and poor performance, ultimately leading to burnout. So how can you balance perfectionist tendencies with the realities of editing, including tight deadlines and the hard truth that no one is perfect? In this session, you’ll learn strategies that you can apply immediately to work toward a high level of accuracy and overcome the fear of failure. The result is that you’ll enjoy your work more, perform better, and avoid the stress that makes editors wonder why they ever got into the business.
Instructor
Suzy Bills is an editor, author, and faculty member in the editing and publishing program at Brigham Young University. She was previously a lead editor for the Joseph Smith Papers, and she’s owned a writing and editing business for a decade, working with individuals and companies to publish everything from books to dissertations, video scripts, technical manuals, marketing materials, and cookbooks. She loves sharing her skills with others, whether through teaching, mentoring, helping authors get their thoughts on paper, or fine-tuning their writing. Her book on freelance editing will be published by the University of California Press in 2021.