Paid to edit/proofread? Well, would ja look at that!

“However great a man’s natural talent may be, the act of writing cannot be learned all at once.”
–Jean-Jacques Rousseau

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Last week a pal of mine (who is not a writer) gave me a call and asked if I could proofread/edit the content on his website. I had read through it earlier and kept it to myself that it was lacking. It was just careless mistakes, really. You know, the kind of mistakes us writers make when we type so fast that our head gets ahead of our fingers and we leave a key word out of a sentence? Or those times when we start to write a sentence, pause, and then continue, except we repeat the last two words we wrote before we paused. So you have a have a deja vu moment in your writing. 😉

Those kinds of things, and some sentence structure stuff and clarity issues.

But in any case, I didn’t say anything when I read it because he didn’t exactly ask about what I thought about the words on the page. He wanted me to check out a video he had. But after I watched the video, he actually mentioned what was written probably wasn’t good and could use an edit.

That’s when I agreed it could use an edit, lol.

So, last week he asked if I could do it for him because he wasn’t good at the writing kind of stuff and he asked how much it would cost him. I told him I wouldn’t charge him, but he said he really wanted to pay me for it.

So this is new territory! Being paid to edit/proofread someone’s work. Very exciting! But especially now that money is on the table, I want to be sure everything is pristine. And it’s not even like I think I’m the best when it comes to grammar rules and everything. Because I am not. But I know what I know, and I guess to him it’s worth payment.

Sweet deal, I thought!

Bed Time! (How I Am Blessed)

“I put a piece of paper under my pillow, and when I could not sleep I wrote in the dark.”
–Henry David Thoreau

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Yesterday the furniture store delivered my bed frame I purchased last Wednesday, so that means no more sleeping with my mattress on the floor!!!! I was so stoked to spend my first night in it last night. It was grand. Superb, even.

Perhaps you’re wondering why I didn’t have a bed frame. Well, when I first moved down to Florida in early 2012, I drove down here with only my car and whatever could fit in it. Hence, I didn’t have a mattress either. I was actually sleeping on the floor and a blanket until about mid-2012 when someone purchased a mattress for me. That was a joyous night as well!

There is a story behind receiving this bed frame, and I thought it would be good to share it. After a little while being in Florida, I had found a store that had the type of bed I wanted. And I liked the bed. My criteria were storage drawers and bookshelves on the headboard. And I wanted it to be a platform bed (i.e. a bed that was designed to forego the traditional box spring).

Time passed and people had given me money to go towards the purchasing of the bed! It was amazing. I’m so blessed! So, with their money, and also money I put aside for it, the amount grew.

Now, over the course of the year, I would visit the furniture store’s website just to see if they had sales or anything (and to make sure they still sold it). Well, last Wednesday, I was on their website, and noticed that the bed was no longer available. It didn’t really faze me, even though that was the only bed of that type I’d seen that I really liked (and that would fit in my room, ahahaha).

I knew of a nearby furniture store to where I live now (I changed apartment communities this past January). I had gone there once before when I was browsing kitchen tables, and there were a few things I liked there. So, I went to their website, and there were two beds that met my criteria, and they looked BETTER than the one I had originally chosen. I immediately got excited. Not only that, but the prices on the beds were below the price of the previous bed I had picked out. And I actually had the money IN HAND to purchase either bed!

I decided I was going to go to the store the next morning. That is, until I revisited the site’s main page and just barely noticed the words “Wednesday Only 6pm – Midnight”. It was one of those ads on main pages that rotate among different things. And because I couldn’t figure out how to get back to the previous ad, I refreshed the entire page, and what do you know? There was a sale on everything in the store, lasting until midnight! At this point it was probably close to 9pm. I gave the store a call, and asked if they had both beds on display. They did and I told them I would be in that night.

Grabbing the money, I went to the store, and I met up with the salesman I spoke with on the phone. He takes me to the first bed. Amazing. He takes me to the second bed. Also, so very awesome, but the first one had more drawers. So, I asked to crunch some numbers, kind of in awe that all of this was happening because an hour prior I hadn’t even been thinking about a bed!

He gave me the numbers. With the discount on the bed and the tax, I had enough money CASH to pay for the bed. However, the delivery fee I didn’t have enough cash to cover that.

Buuuuut — and HERE is where it gets SUPER SWEET — earlier that day I was checking my bank account online and noticed some extra money deposited into my account. I figured it was my parents that deposited it (it was — I asked later), but with that money being in my account, that was enough to cover the delivery charge… and the bed was purchased!

I am so blessed and I am so thankful! The scripture Proverbs 10:22 comes to mind:

The blessing of the Lord, it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow with it.

In a time where bills need to be paid and money is constantly on a flow outward, I am just so gratefully blessed that I didn’t have to come out-of-pocket that day to pay for ANY of the bed frame. Yes, in the past year I had put some money into the savings of the bed, but the money that I had in my checking account at the start of the day was not touched! So I didn’t use anything I already had assigned to something else.

And between the money set aside and the extra funds deposited, God totally blessed me and hooked me up! And you know what? Even with the money that I had set aside personally, most of the money came from other people! Even if you added my parents’ money with mine, it STILL doesn’t match the dollar amount that other people so graciously gave. And having those people who sowed, believed with me, hooked with me, encouraged me… God has just blessed me greatly. And He continues to do so! I’m blessed. Blessed. Blessed. Blessed. Blessed!

Busy, Busy Me

“If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.”
-Stephen King

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A bit of an update of what’s going on in my life currently, writing-wise and otherwise. Today I actually had orientation at a part-time job to supplement my current full-time position I’ve held since January. I have a few other job applications out for full-time positions to change to. You might be wondering why I would be sharing my plans like this on the world wide web. But my manager, store manager, and everyone already knows that I’m keeping my eyes open for other opportunities. I let them know because I didn’t want to surprise them with it. This way, they’ll have ample time to prepare.

The anthology, The Glass Parachute, which will hold two of my sci-fi stories, is still slated to be released this summer, but we authors have been told it’ll be postponed another couple of weeks. When I get my copy in the mail, I plan on snapping a photo with it and sharing it. It’ll probably serve as my Facebook default picture for a bit too! But you all will be told where you can buy it, for sure!

My writing has taken a backseat, unfortunately. No excuses, but it has. What I have been able to keep up with are the Be Inspired pieces I publish on my website. Beyond that, no new fiction has been written.

Let’s see, what else… I’m considering revamping my website, scwade.com. With all of this going on in my life, I am actually considering putting more on my plate. But in addition to a site redesign, I want to incorporate a little more besides my Be Inspired pieces I feature every three weeks. I also want to open that up to more writers I know who have their own inspiring stories to share. I am considering vlogs, where I may review books that I’ve read. I thought it would give it a different spin on book reviews. Of course, with that, I’ll need to make a YouTube channel and go through the uploading of the videos and whatnot. So that equals to more time too.

But like I said. I’m considering.

The book I just finished reading was The Mist by Stephen King, and it was actually the first book I’d ever read of his. Don’t hurt me! …I thought the book was good, and I was content with the ending. And I’m untainted by anything the movie may have ruined, as I haven’t seen the movie either. I would assume that The Mist isn’t his best work, but it definitely makes me want to put more of Mr. King’s works on my reading list (which has only gotten longer).

That’s about all… Until next time!

My New Discipline

“Everybody walks past a thousand story ideas every day. The good writers are the ones who see five or six of them. Most people don’t see any.”
-Orson Scott Card

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Well, everyone, I am now a resident of Florida! Spent Christmas and New Year’s Day with my family and left them and my friends behind in the mountains of Pennsylvania. Loving it here! And I’m settled in decently. My apartment community is great, my neighbors are friendly, staff is wonderful. Makes it a pleasure to come home from work everyday.

Ah, yes! I am working. While not working the entire month of January was awesome, I started a part-time job in the beginning of February. And it turned into full-time employment in just a few weeks. I have a great church as well, so things are goooood.

Moving on, let me discuss the topic more in line with the subject of this blog…

Even though I was free from work the entire month of January (ya know, work that offered compensation, not the work that included unpacking and buying stuff for my apartment) I hardly wrote any fiction. I may have written a few lines, but clearly nothing substantial enough for me to even remember, lol. But I’m turning that around. I made a public announcement (AKA a status update) on my Facebook saying I would have a new story completed each month in 2012 (from March-December) and told people to hold me to that word.

By “completed” I mean written, polished, critiqued, and revised/rewritten all in one month. So by the end of 2012, I will have 10 brand new stories!!!

How am I doing so far? Well, the story for the month of March was completed…Barely. Haha. I found myself up at 11pm on March 31 finishing up the revisions. And I did finish them, so March was a success! But I don’t want to cut it that close anymore.

The story for April just finished being critiqued, so I just have to revise it with the suggestions I believe better the story. So I’m actually ahead of the game now. I already started writing a brand new story for May.

This new discipline will be one of the things that’ll keep me busy throughout the year, and I welcome it with open arms. It’s time to soar!