Written by Robin Reed

How much to charge for your editing services is a question both new and experienced freelancers wrestle with. There is no easy or one-size-fits-all answer, as a variety of personal factors come into play. The particular editing service you offer, your level of skill and experience, the complexity of a particular project, the amount of money you need to bring in to meet your expenses—all these and more will influence your pricing. Some general principles may be helpful in making these decisions.

First, consider what type of pricing structure—hourly, per word, or per project—will best fit your business.

Hourly

An hourly rate has the advantage of ensuring you get paid for the work you actually do. For example, if a particular edit turns out to be more complex than anticipated, you’ll still earn your desired rate for the extra hours required. One downside of an hourly rate is that, in a sense, it can punish you for efficiency. As your editing speed increases over time, whether through improved skills or the use of time-saving tools such as macros, you’ll need to book more projects to earn the same amount of money. Unless, of course, you increase your hourly rate.

Per Word

Charging a per-word fee has the advantage of letting clients know up front exactly what their edit will cost, which many find reassuring. In addition, you benefit directly from any increased efficiency. However, relying on per-word pricing carries the danger of getting paid less than you intended for an unexpectedly complex or time-consuming edit. You’ll also want to ensure that you’ve set clear boundaries to prevent scope creep—which, ideally, all of us should be doing anyway.

Per Project

An advantage of per-project pricing is that it allows you to more easily account for a project’s complexity than per-word pricing does. The downside, however, is that per-project pricing can feel arbitrary to potential clients, while hourly and per-word pricing seem more objective.

Other Factors to Consider

Once you’ve decided which pricing style to use, how do you then go about setting an actual price? Editing rate charts, such as those published by the PEN and the EFA, can be a helpful starting point to give you a sense of what some editors are charging. But they are only a range of averages, which doesn’t tell you what you should charge. You’ll also want to consider the type and complexity of the work you’re doing. For example, academic and technical editors often charge more than fiction editors, and developmental editing typically carries a higher price tag than proofreading.

You’ll also want to factor in your education and experience. A brand-new editor should probably charge a lower rate (while still being fairly compensated for their time!) than one with twenty years of experience at a major publisher. Over time, as your skill level and experience increase, you may decide to raise your rates accordingly.

Know Your Target

One important but often overlooked consideration in setting a freelance editing rate is your personal financial situation. In other words, how much money do you need to meet your expenses? This will help you determine your target hourly rate (THR).[1]

1. The first step in calculating your THR is to determine your target annual gross income (AGI). When thinking about your AGI, make sure to include the hidden costs that often accompany freelancing.  Taxes (including self-employment tax) are an obvious consideration, but don’t forget to factor in things like retirement savings, health insurance, and a cushion to cover vacation time and sick days.

• Once you’ve determined your target AGI, the next step is to calculate the hourly rate you need to earn to hit that target. Here’s an example (with numbers chosen simply to make the math easy).

If your annual target income is $50,000:

$50,000 / 50 (allowing for 2 weeks of vacation time) = $1,000 per week

$1,000 / 40 (or however many hours you work in a week) = $25 per hour

• Now you need to factor in how many of your work hours are billable. In other words, how many hours in your workweek are actually spent editing? For example, if you have 20 billable (editing) hours in a 40-hour workweek, then each of those billable hours needs to bring in $50 to meet your overall goal of earning $25 per hour.

Bridging the Gap

Now that you know your THR, it’s time to find out what hourly rate you are currently earning. If you aren’t already tracking the time you spend editing and you don’t charge an hourly rate, try tracking your editing time for a month or two. The first time I did this, the results were eye-opening.

If your hourly rate is on target, great! Keep up the good work. If there’s a gap between your target and actual hourly rates, then it’s time to strategize ways to bridge it. Raising your rates, if you feel it’s appropriate, is an obvious place to start. You may also want to brainstorm additional ways to generate income. Honestly facing your financial situation might be difficult, but acknowledging that a problem exists is the first step to solving it.

Regardless of whether any gap exists, knowing exactly how you price projects and why you charge what you do can give you confidence that you’re treating clients fairly by not charging arbitrary rates and also treating yourself fairly by ensuring you’re appropriately compensated for your work. The answer to the question “How much should I charge?” may vary widely from editor to editor, but doing the math will help you find the right answer for your business.

[1] For the concept of determining a target hourly rate, I am indebted to Richard Adin’s An American Editor blog. For an in-depth discussion of this topic, see the series that begins at https://americaneditor.wordpress.com/2013/08/05/business-of-editing-what-to-charge-part-i/.

Robin discovered her dream career of book editing in 2019, after earning a master’s degree in American history and spending nearly two decades homeschooling her four children. She took a number of courses through the PEN Institute and eventually became a PEN Gold member. Since then, she’s worked with dozens of self-publishing authors in addition to freelancing for two major traditional publishing houses. When she’s not at her desk, she can be found on one of Southern Oregon’s many gorgeous hiking trails or at the local ballroom dance floor with her husband (the foxtrot is their favorite).

Written by Martin Wiles

“Variety is the spice of life”—as it is with writing … and with editing.

Before we can switch up the structure, however, we must know the types of sentence structures, as well as other elements we find in sentences. So, pardon the brief grammar class.

The four types of sentences we write are declarative, imperative, interrogative, and exclamatory. Declarative sentences are the most common type and make a statement. Imperatives give a command or strong suggestion. Interrogatives ask a question, and exclamatory sentences express surprise and end with an exclamation point.

The kinds of sentences are simple, compound, complex, and compound complex. Simple sentences contain one independent clause (subject and verb expressing a complete thought). Compound sentences contain two independent clauses connected by a coordinating conjunction or semicolon. Complex sentences have one independent clause and one dependent clause (subject and verb expressing a complete thought, along with a clause that does not express a complete thought). Compound-complex sentences contain two independent clauses and at least one dependent clause.

Within any of the above types and kinds of sentences, we can find adjectival and adverbial prepositional phrases or verbal phrases (gerunds, participles, and infinitives).

Switching up sentence structure means using all the above in various ways while avoiding the common errors that can occur.  

Varying Sentence Structure with Phrases (Prepositional and Verbal)

Where we place the prepositional phrase can change the meaning of the sentence, but it can also confuse the reader, making it imperative that we put it near the verb or noun we want it to modify.

Example: We watched a film from Australia presented by missionaries (the film is from Australia).

Example: Dad said on Saturday we would go fishing. (Did Dad say it on Saturday, or is the fishing trip on Saturday?)

Verbal phrases provide even more flexibility to vary sentence structure than prepositional phrases do.

Example: Running (gerund) in the morning is good exercise.

Example: A form of good exercise is running in the morning.

Participial phrases also give versatility but are typically used only as adjectives.

Example: Hung (participle) on the clothesline to dry, the towel flapped in the breeze.

Example: The towel flapped in the breeze while hung on the clothesline to dry.

When participial phrases are used at the beginning of a sentence, we must be careful not to create a dangling participle. This occurs when the phrase has no subject to modify or when the subject it modifies is senseless.

Infinitive phrases also provide an opportunity to vary our sentence structure.

Example: To run (infinitive) in the morning is a good exercise.

Example: I love to run in the morning for exercise.

Varying Sentence Structure with Clauses (Noun, Adjective, Adverb)

Noun clauses are introduced by the following signal words: that, whether, if, who, whom, whose, which, what, when, where, why, how, whoever, whomever, whichever, and whatever.

Example: (Whether we go to the writing conference) has not been decided.

Example: We have not decided whether to go to the writing conference.

When we use adjective clauses, we must introduce them with relatives: who, whom, which, that, and whose. These give less flexibility since they must follow the noun they modify.

Example: The girl (who won the contest) is in the tenth grade.

Adverb clauses usually answer the following questions: when, where, how, why, to what extent, or under what conditions. Like single adverbs and adverb phrases, they can provide greater variety in sentence structure, especially when they modify the verb.

Example: We will leave (when the game is over).

Example: When the game is over, we will leave.

Watch That Parallelism

A final matter to consider when varying sentence structure is parallelism. When we have logically parallel ideas, we must place them in a grammatical form that is identical.

Incorrect Example: You can sit either on the floor, or you can sit in the balcony.

Correct Example: You can sit either on the floor or in the balcony.

In the incorrect example, a prepositional phrase follows either, but a pronoun follows or, making this unparallel.

Lists can also present parallel issues.

Incorrect Example: He enjoys writing, editing, and to run.

Correct Example: He enjoys writing, editing, and running.

To check for parallelism, look at the first word or phrase and see if all the following elements are identical (all phrases, all clauses, all adjectives, all nouns, etc.).

As editors, we can’t assume our writers are familiar with the grammatical concepts discussed in this post. But we should be. And when we are, we can help our clients’ writing pop. So go ahead. Help your client switch that sentence structure so the manuscript, article, or devotion won’t bore the readers.

Martin Wiles is an author, pastor, English teacher, freelance editor who resides in Greenwood, South Carolina. He is a Gold PEN member and PEN instructor, the managing editor for VineWords: Devotions and More, and the Managing Editor for Christian Devotions. He is the founder/editor of the internationally recognized devotion site, Love Lines from God. His most recent book, Grits, Grace, and Grands, is available on Amazon. He has also been published in numerous publications. He is the husband of one, the father of two, and the grandfather of seven.

Written by Megan Ryan

I wondered if I was going to be welcome at a writing group as an editor who doesn’t do much writing. My occasional blog posts didn’t feel like much compared to writing a novel, Bible study, articles, or devotions. But after focusing on online connections for freelance editing, I wanted to get to know the nearby writing community better and use my expertise to help local authors. So I decided to try joining a writing group more than a year ago. While I hope I have been helpful to other attendees, I have also grown through the process. Here are some of the things I’ve learned:

1. It can take some time to find the right group.

The writing group I am currently a part of was not the first one I attended. I first tried one that met at my local library. While there were clearly some regulars, anyone could drop in to any meeting. This group also wanted everyone to bring some writing to share almost every time they attended. I got a pass my first week, but it was clear I couldn’t just keep showing up to help others with their writing.

So when I learned about a local group for Christian writers that met at a better time for me, I decided to try it out. This group has been a good fit. Most of the members have been together for many years, but they made me feel welcome. It’s great when I have some writing to share, but it’s fine for me to join in the fellowship and critiquing when I don’t.

You may have to try more than one or two groups before you find the one that is the best fit for you. Besides the meeting time, group rules, and general vibe, you might also want to consider what kind of experience the other members have and what type of writing they do.

2. It’s hard to share your writing.

The reason the group at the library wanted everyone to bring writing to share was so everyone took a turn being vulnerable. I didn’t quite understand that during the meetings I attended. But once I brought more writing to my current group, I could comprehend it better. It is nerve wracking to hear someone else read your writing (or know others are silently reading it) and wait to find out what they think!

I knew it could be difficult for authors to surrender their work to an editor, but experiencing critique myself has given me a deeper understanding of the vulnerability involved. I hope I’ve transferred that awareness into my work with clients as well.

Having some anxiety about sharing your work is normal, even if you’ve found a great group. But if you consistently leave your critique group feeling worse about your writing, you may need to keep looking for a group you can trust to be both truthful and gracious.

3. Giving a balance of positive and negative is important.

The group I attend uses a sandwich method of feedback: Start with something positive about the writing. Share some things that may need work. Finish with something positive.

This is a familiar concept to many, but it’s been good for me to practice using it in real-time conversation rather than in a manuscript file or client email. And as the one getting feedback, I appreciate hearing about the things that are working.

Because sharing writing is such a vulnerable act, it is essential your feedback affirms what the other writer is doing well. No one’s writing will be perfect, but it’s unlikely to be all bad either. Hearing the good things motivates us to revisit the not-as-good things.

4. Multiple perspectives bring depth to feedback.

Having a single critique partner can be valuable, but I’ve learned in my group how helpful it can be to have feedback from multiple people who’ve heard or read the other comments. There have been several times in our group where one member points out an issue in a piece and then someone else is able to propose a solution when it’s their turn to critique.

Other times, I have been looking more at the fine details of a text until another member brings up a structural issue they noticed. Then I can go back and look at it from a different angle to enhance my feedback as well.

If you’ve been working mostly with a single critique partner, you may want to consider expanding to a regular group. Or inviting more people to join you on occasion. Hearing a few other people talking about your work and bouncing ideas off each other can be so helpful.

Conclusion

I went into the writing group experience hoping I could help authors, and I think I have. But I didn’t expect to find as many lessons for myself—or as much community as I have found.

If you want to grow as both a writer and an editor, I recommend you look for a writing group you can join. You can even start one of your own. I believe when you find the right one, you’ll be blessed by the support and improve your communication skills. If you are a member of a writing group, share how it’s helped your editing or writing in the comments.

Megan Ryan copyedits and proofreads to give authors confidence about sharing their writing with the world. She has copyedited and/or proofread more than 200 books for indie authors and hybrid publishers. She also serves as assistant director of the Christian Editors Association and the volunteer coordinator for The Well Conference.

Megan lives in Michigan with her husband and three children, and she enjoys holding babies in the church nursery and riding her bike in nice weather. You can contact her at mryanediting@gmail.com or find more information at meganryanediting.com.

Written by Ken Walker

Years ago, when my wife complained about the monitor on her desktop computer being too small, I told her to take mine.

            “I’ll go to Office Depot and get an even bigger one,” I said.

I envisioned the gargantuan display on the 23-inch screen I purchased making it easy to motor through my day, writing and editing away with the clearest vision possible.

Reality doesn’t always match daydreams.

I hated that monitor. And soon, it became nothing more than a nuisance.

The reason: more than a dozen years ago, when Microsoft announced the end of support for the XP operating system, I asked a tech-savvy friend if he could install Windows 7 on my desktop.

            “Give me a week,” he said.

It took more than three weeks. In the interim, I discovered how much more I liked working on the two-year-old laptop I had purchased from one of our grandsons.

He had installed Windows Ultimate on it, which my friend insisted was no better than the Home Premium he put on my desktop. Experience proved my friend wrong.

With Home Premium, I was constantly battling pop-up ads and messages about driver updates. With Ultimate, none of that.

That’s how the desktop became an expensive doorstop. My laptop became the easiest (and superior) way to take notes during interviews, navigate the internet, and become more productive.

For a while, I would turn on the desktop every few months so it would load the latest Windows updates. Finally, I stopped doing that.

It was so old it couldn’t handle Windows 11 when it came on the scene. And, with thumb drives and online back-up I saw no reason to keep using it. Especially when I bought a second laptop for backup and—starting in 2020—doing Zoom calls while I took notes on my main laptop.

And yet, there the monitor sat, hogging desk space and looming over my office like an unwanted intruder.

Finally, last year, an extended family member moved to town. Coming from modest circumstances, he asked if he could have my desktop. A teenager, he figured he could get it updated and have something to surf the net and play games.

That forced my hand. I contacted the grandson whom I call my tech advisor. I asked if he could format the hard drive to wipe out any information I didn’t want floating around. I also took the 23-inch monitor to his house so he could check it out.

Long story short: the desktop was so old that it wasn’t worth bothering with. And the relative decided the monitor was too big for his bedroom.

The last I heard, the computer and monitor were headed for the recycle bin at Best Buy. I didn’t really care; I was just happy they were gone.

Removing the monitor made my office feel worlds bigger. It inspired me to clean off my dusty computer table, led to the discovery of an old set of USB headphones I didn’t know I still had, and improved my overall outlook.

It even inspired me to collect the worthless computer-linked CDs that have been gathering dust for a decade and toss them too.

Editors, if you have outdated and essentially worthless computers or other equipment, work up your courage, overcome the innate procrastination gene, and get rid of it. I guarantee you will feel better when you do.

Ken Walker is a freelance writer and book editor with more than 4,800 article bylines to his credit. He has coauthored, edited, or contributed to more than 100 books. His latest developmental editing project released Aug. 18: Chasing Rich: Stories of Men, Miracles, and the God Among Us.

Written by Martin Wiles

We generally associate weasels with chickens. Weasels have ways of weaseling into chicken pens and coops to kill chickens or suck their eggs.

In writing, weasel words are words or phrases that creep into writing, leading to redundancy and wordiness. Since these are typically pet words or phrases used to make writing sound impressive, writers often use them without thinking. Thus, the writing appears whole—as does the egg the weasel has sucked dry—but it is not.

Redundancy is the practice of saying or writing the same thing someone has already said or written, using different phrasing or synonyms. Wordiness, on the other hand, is using more words than necessary to express what needs to be said or written.

At times, we may use the two terms interchangeably, and their definitions can overlap, as the examples that follow show.

Example: John plans to meet Susie at 10 a.m. in the morning.

The abbreviation a.m. means “in the morning,” so repeating the phrase “in the morning” is redundant.

Wordiness would be more in line with the following:

Let’s take into consideration the cost of hiring an editor.

The phrase “take into consideration” can be shortened to one word: consider. Often, ion-suffixed words are zombie nouns for which we can easily unearth a smothered verb.

Sharla Rae, in an excellent blog post “Put Your Flabby Writing on a Diet” (Writers in the Storm Blog), details some common redundancies. 

• Short minute – A minute is short.
• Rise up/lift up – If something rises, it’s going up.
• Dash quickly – To dash is to act quickly.
• Absolutely certain/sure – If it’s absolute, it’s certain. (Absolutely is my favorite almost-always unnecessary adverb that adds absolutely [okay, I couldn’t help it] nothing to a sentence.)
• Combined together/blended together – If we combine items, they are together.
• Clearly apparent – If it’s clear, it’s apparent.
• Appointed as – If appointed as, one is appointed.
• Fall down – If something falls, it goes down, not up.
• Exact same – Exact and same mean the same thing.
• Radiate out/expand out – If something radiates, it’s moving outward, so “out” is redundant.
• Floral bouquet – A bouquet typically refers to flowers.
• Respond back – A response is giving an answer or reaction “back.”
• Seek out – If one seeks, they go beyond/out to search
• Trace amount – Trace is a small amount, making “amount” redundant.
• Skip over – Skip is going “over” one thing to the next.
• Could possibly – If you could do something, then it’s a possibility.
• True facts – Facts are true, or they are not facts.

The following are some ways editors can examine writing for redundancies.

Search for Idioms and Cliches

Cliches are overused expressions, while idioms are expressions whose meaning cannot be determined by the words themselves. Example: He was as dead as a doornail.

Peruse the Pet Words and Phrases

Examples include very, really, actually, so, well, but, and absolutely.

Don’t Prop with Adverbs or Adjectives

Adverbs have their place, but not when used to prop up weak verbs. Example: squeal loudly. The same holds for adjectives added to nouns, where the adjective is already implied: yellow daffodils.

So, know those redundancies and help your writers root them out.

Martin Wiles is an author, pastor, English teacher, freelance editor who resides in Greenwood, South Carolina. He is a Gold PEN member and PEN instructor, the managing editor for VineWords: Devotions and More, and the Managing Editor for Christian Devotions. He is the founder/editor of the internationally recognized devotion site, Love Lines from God. His most recent book, Grits, Grace, and Grands, is available on Amazon. He has also been published in numerous publications. He is the husband of one, the father of two, and the grandfather of seven.

Written by Megan Ryan

In May, a fifth edition of The Christian Writer’s Manual of Style (CWMS) was released. This style guide is based on Chicago Style, but it covers religious topics more deeply.

If you attended PENCON 2026, you had a chance to hear about some of the updates straight from the author, Robert Hudson, or to read about them on his workshop’s handout. I enjoyed hearing him explain some of the changes. So if you missed this year’s PENCON, you might want to purchase the recording of his session when it’s available.

Some of the information in this post came from Mr. Hudson’s workshop, and some came from flipping through my copy of the book.

Physical Changes

If you owned a paperback copy of the CWMS fourth edition, you’ll probably notice some changes as soon as you hold the fifth edition. The new version is thinner, with fewer pages than the last one. But it is not because there is less information now. CWMS 5 has a smaller font, which results in a smaller form factor. If you have trouble with smaller print, you may want to get the Kindle version instead (which has the bonus feature of being searchable).

A change that I consider very positive is adding a gray bar at the top of the capitalization list pages. This results in a gray box on the edge of those pages so that you can turn right to the capitalization list without needing to add a sticky note or bookmark. The other physical change I noticed is that the Word List has two columns of text now instead of one.

Sections

The main sections of the guide are unchanged from the last edition. There is the Style Guide first, followed by the Word List. An appendix was added that offers advice for writers, editors, and proofreaders. This is about eight pages of extra tips.

I was hoping to see extra guidance for fiction in this version of CWMS, and Mr. Hudson said that there was a new section on that. But I was disappointed that this advice was only eight points that took up about half a page.

Finding where the guide says you don’t have to give chapter and verse references when quoting Scripture in fiction still requires an editor or writer to discover that paragraph under the “Familiar Phrases” subheading in the “Quoting the Bible” entry of the style guide (pp. 250–251 in CWMS 5). I don’t think many people would look for the information there unless they already knew where it was.

Capitalization List

More than six hundred new words have been added to the capitalization list, which I think is great. That may be the most-used section of CWMS. Some of the additions I noticed are: abundant life, Accession Psalms, the Accuser, Allah, benison, Blessed Sacrament, conclave, and the Sinner’s Prayer.

There are some words whose capitalization has changed in the new edition. Some that I think will pop up more often are Gehenna (now capitalized), holy place (now lowercase), and John’s gospel (with gospel now lower in more cases than before).

Style Guide

There are more than thirty new English Bible versions listed, and I was surprised there were that many to add. The permissions guidelines sections have been updated, and there are more headings to break up the info. But since the publishers’ guidelines could change in the coming years, it’s probably good to check the publisher websites every so often as well.

A new entry in the guide covers AI usage and compares using it for research to using it to generate content. This is a very brief overview, but I found it to be a helpful and calm summary.

Some other new entries I noticed in the Style Guide include:

• Grawlix: Using symbols for profanity is mostly acceptable in comics.
• Gendered Pronouns for God: I had some trouble finding this at first, but it’s titled “Pronouns for God, Gendered.”
• Passive Voice: Sometimes it is unavoidable or even better than active voice.
• BC/AD: There’s a discussion of using these labels versus BCE and CE.
• Dyslexia Considerations: This is a topic I’m glad the publishing industry is keeping in mind.
• Heresies and Schisms: These used to be only in the Word List.
• Pronouns in the KJV: The first entry in the K section clarifies thee/thou versus ye/you.
• Capitalization at the Beginning of Verses in the KJV, under “Quoting the Bible”: You can lowercase the start of a new verse if that fits the surrounding punctuation or grammar.

Entries that have changes or clarifications include:

• Racial Designations under “Capitalization Guidelines”: It is now recommended to capitalize Black.
• Tenses for Verbs of Saying under “Quotations, General”: Generally, use past tense for things that happened in the past, like Luke wrote the book of Acts. But it’s fine to use present tense for interacting with a historical text today: Acts tells us that the early church . . .
• Commas and Semicolons in Scripture Quotations, under “Quoting the Bible”: This was a change in CMOS 18 that I hadn’t heard about or noticed, but you can use a comma between Bible references from different chapters or books now. For example: Ephesians 5:16, 6:10. I thought it was overkill to use semicolons between references in the same book, so saving them for when you need to show more of a difference makes sense to me.

Conclusion

There are more changes on Mr. Hudson’s PENCON handout and probably many more he didn’t have time to mention, so I hope that you take some time to flip or scan through a copy of CWMS 5 yourself to make further discoveries.

I think the changes are beneficial overall; I just wish the fiction guidance was more robust. If there’s a change you feel strongly about or something you wanted to see included, let us know in the comments.

Megan Ryan copyedits and proofreads to give authors confidence about sharing their writing with the world. She has copyedited and/or proofread more than 200 books for self-publishing authors and hybrid publishers. She also serves as assistant director of the Christian Editor Connection and volunteer coordinator for the Well Conference.

Megan lives in Michigan with her husband and three children, and she enjoys holding babies in the church nursery and riding her bike in nice weather. You can contact her at mryanediting@gmail.com or find more information at meganryanediting.com.

Written by Michelle Miller

Some days, I stare at my to-do list and feel like I’m already behind before I’ve even had my coffee. There’s so much to do!

• Brushing up on my skills
• Proofreading projects
• Chip away at the course I’m taking
• Write a blog post
• Schedule emails and social media posts

But then there’s personal stuff too: take the dogs out, eat, chores.

Do you have days like this, too?

I used to try to juggle everything, hoping all the pieces would magically fall into place. But most days ended with me feeling scattered, frustrated, and bitter—busy, but not productive.

Finally, I discovered block scheduling and the Pomodoro technique. Combining time blocking and Pomodoro has helped me schedule my day more effectively, reduced my stress, and helped me improve focus and productivity. Now, at the end of the day I feel like I’ve accomplished something instead of feeling unproductive.

What Is Time Blocking?

Time blocking is a time management technique where you divide your day into blocks of time and dedicate a specific task to each block. For example, you might schedule client work from 9 am to 11 am. So, instead of the never-ending to-do list, you have a schedule outlining what you will work on and when.

I love time blocking because it:

• provides structure
• preserves productivity
• helps me stay focused on one task at a time
• keeps me organized

What is the Pomodoro Technique?

The Pomodoro Technique is also a time management method. It breaks down work tasks into 25-minute intervals, known as pomodoros. At the end of each interval, you take a short 5-minute break, with a longer break after the fourth interval. (You can adjust the time intervals and break lengths.)

I love the Pomodoro Technique because it:

• keeps me focused
• helps me get organized
• helps me start on projects I’m putting off
• reduces my stress level

How I Combine Time Blocking and Pomodoro

Time blocking gives me a clear structure for my day. I assign specific chunks of time to different tasks—like client work, writing a blog post, or learning. But even with my day scheduled, I can still get distracted and have trouble focusing. Combining time blocking with the Pomodoro Technique lets me work in short sprints that help me stay focused.

I keep an ongoing to-do list in a notebook. Each day, I take the most important items and schedule them for the morning—my power hours when my brain is most focused. Then I pick one or two more items to work on in the afternoon. I also block out time for appointments and even rest days, because sometimes we just need a day of rest.

How You Can Combine Time Blocking with Pomodoro

Time management for freelancers is so important. Here’s how to combine these techniques for a more productive, less stressful day.

Step 1: List Your Tasks
Write down everything you regularly need to do—work tasks like client projects and creative work, plus personal responsibilities like laundry, walking the dog, or lunch breaks. Don’t forget learning, marketing, or rest!

Step 2: Group Tasks into Categories
Group similar tasks together:

• Client work (editing, proofreading, communicating)
• Creative work (writing blog posts, brainstorming content)
• Admin tasks (invoicing, email, scheduling)
• Personal (lunch, dog walks, household chores)
• Learning (online courses, reading, skill practice)

Grouping tasks makes it easier to block out your time and makes them less overwhelming, reducing the mental resistance that often leads to procrastination.

Step 3: Assign Time Blocks
Plug those task categories into your calendar in chunks—90 minutes or 2 hours is a great place to start. Match tasks to the time of day when your energy is highest. For me:

• Morning: Deep focus tasks like editing or writing
• Midday: Admin or learning
• Afternoon: Lighter tasks or errands

Tip: Leave buffer time between blocks so your day doesn’t feel rushed.

Step 4: Use Pomodoro Inside Each Block
Once you’re in a time block, use the Pomodoro Technique to stay focused:

• Work for 25 minutes
• Take a 5-minute break
• Repeat for 3–4 sessions, then take a longer break (15–30 minutes)

By the end of my workday, I’m not stressed and I feel more productive.

Step 5: Review and Adjust
At the end of the day or week, check in with yourself: Did your blocks feel realistic? Were your pomodoros focused or interrupted? Do you need more breaks or shorter blocks?

This will take some getting used to, and that’s okay! It only works when it’s flexible and personalized to your brain and your lifestyle.

Final Thoughts

If your to-do list feels like it’s running your life instead of the other way around, you’re not alone. With a little planning and the right tools, you can take back your day. Time blocking gives your schedule structure, and the Pomodoro Technique helps you stay focused and productive—one tiny habit at a time.

Michelle is a freelance proofreader who helps Christian living authors prepare polished, publication-ready manuscripts. She enjoys supporting writers as they share messages of faith, encouragement, and hope with their readers. Michelle lives in Virginia with her husband and daughter. When she’s not proofreading, she enjoys crocheting, reading, antique shopping with her mom, and spending time with her family.

Written by Erin Snyder

Freelance writing is a good way for novice editors to gain experience in the publishing field, learn valuable skills, and further their education.

Editing Experience

As a professional freelance writer, your job doesn’t stop with writing an article or blog post and submitting your work; it also involves knowing how to edit your work. When I first started my freelance career, I made the mistake of believing that the organization’s in-house editors would edit my pieces and check for typos, grammar errors, etc.

I quickly learned that this was not always the case. If I wanted to look professional, I needed to learn how to edit my own work, catch typos, and acquire skills to polish my words. For me, freelance writing became a powerful tool to learn the basic concepts of several kinds of editing, including developmental editing, copyediting, and proofreading.

Freelance writing can also be beneficial in learning your strengths and weaknesses and what editing skills you excel. This is especially insightful if you have an editor who is willing to work with you to improve your submissions.

Learn How to Edit Kindly

As editors, our job is to take someone else’s words and make them better. For most of us, reworking a manuscript, article, or devotional into a masterpiece is very rewarding. But for the author, the process can be a little more painful.

Freelance writing gives editors a chance to experience the “other side of the coin” in the publishing field. Being edited can provide a deeper insight on what it means to be a kind editor and how to approach your clients with a humble, teachable attitude.

Practice Being Teachable

You can learn a lot from the people who edit your work. While you may sometimes learn how not to edit, many editors are willing to help you learn the ropes and can offer constructive criticism that can positively shape your career.

Job Opportunities

If you’re interested in an editing career beyond books, freelance writing is a good way to open doors and build relationships in your preferred field. 

Gain SEO Knowledge

If you are a freelance writer online, you are probably familiar with a few SEO guidelines, including headlines and keywords. Learning some basic SEO knowledge can go a long way to helping run a successful website, craft blog posts, and even help land online editing jobs.

Sharpen Writing Skills

Sharpening your writing skills is essential for a successful editing career. Developmental and line editing requires reworking sentences, paragraphs, and even whole chapters to improve clarity, point of view, and pacing.

Freelance writing is a good way to hone your own writing skills so that you can help other writers and authors ready their manuscripts, blog posts, and devotionals for publication.

Earn Extra Income

Earning extra income from freelance writing is one of the best ways to help boost your editing skills. When budgeted wisely, taking on extra freelance jobs can provide funding for editing classes, conferences, and website and marketing expenses.

Freelance writing can be a wonderful experience for novice editors and can help prepare you for your God-given calling of editing. 

Erin Snyder is a freelance editor, proofreader, writer, and writing contest judge. Her work has appeared online and in national and international publications. She has a deep love for all things writing and editing and is a Silver Pen member and a member of the American Christian Fiction Writers Association (ACFW).

Erin resides in the Northeast with her family. When she isn’t writing or editing, you can find her crafting her first historical Christian romance novel or spending time with her family. You can contact her at info@erinsnydereditor.com or find more information at https://www.erinsnydereditor.com/.

Written by Sue Schlesman

Regardless of their chosen genre, new and emerging writers tend to make some common writing mistakes. These errors pepper their blogs, devotionals, stories, and articles, signaling to readers and editors that they have not studied the craft of writing enough to achieve excellence, much less marketability. All writers must tackle these hurdles to succeed.

If you want to catch an editor’s eye, you must discipline yourself in the craft of writing. Even in the age of AI and Spellcheck, grammar, syntax, POV, spelling, and story structure separate the wannabe writers from those who will secure a sizable readership, an agent, and/or a traditional publishing contract.

First, most writers struggle at some point with correct grammar usage. Public schools teach very little grammar beyond elementary school and essentially none in high school or college. Consequently, students’ writing stalls in middle school, relegated to basic sentence structures or gangly sentences with an assortment of incorrect phrases, clauses, and punctuation.

Beginning and evolving writers should focus on—

• Correcting passive voice—“The stabbing was done by Tom” becomes “Tom stabbed Henry.”
• Changing verbs of being into verbs of action—“Sophia was sad” changes to “Sophia refused dinner and wept quietly in her room.”
• Correct pronoun-antecedent problems—Match singular pronouns with singular antecedents, and plural with plural; They, their, and them are often considered singular personal pronouns now to avoid gender identification.
• Correct common apostrophe and comma mistakes—Its is a possessive pronoun and does not have an apostrophe (“The house showed its age.”); it’s = it is, a subject and verb. Also be careful of plural possessives; the apostrophe follows the s.
• Correct runaway clauses and phrases—Understand the difference: phrases are a group of words without a subject and verb (prepositional, gerund, participial, or appositive); clauses have a subject and verb and may or may not be independent (sentences).
• Strong syntax—Syntax is the selection and ordering of words to make a sentence flow well. Read your work out loud. If it sounds clumsy or awkward, it needs to be fixed. Language has rhythm, like music. Sentences and paragraphs should roll easily off the tongue.

Secondly, writers struggle with basic writing methods. Most writers write in the genre they love to read. While mentor texts are important for writing development, new writers can get stuck copying the voice or style of the writing they enjoy. Besides the obvious plot and character cliches that can occur, copycat writing also limits a writer’s creativity and personal style. Common writing mistakes occur when a writer doesn’t read a variety of genres and authors and when a writer has not developed a personal style of writing.

Here are some common mistakes that show up in our writing:

• A changing POV (point of view)—decide the viewpoint of the narrator (you); are you telling the story from an omniscient POV, i.e., multiple scenes and storylines? Is the story from the main character’s POV, limiting the reader to his experience only? (For example, if the whole story is the main character’s experience, he doesn’t know what other characters are thinking.)
• Stereotypical characters, plot, theme, dialogue, resolution
• Narration that tells the reader what’s happening instead of showing the reader what’s happening
• Sensory description that is trite, overly-dramatic, or boring
• Over-use of conversation tags—Stay away from using a lot of “he said/she said” and rely on character movement and personality to show who’s talking. Begin a new paragraph whenever the speaker changes.
• Redundancy—Don’t repeat thoughts, opinions, thesis statements. Don’t narrate what’s happening and then also have the characters tell the reader what’s happening.
• A weak or vague thesis statement in expository writing essays, articles, blogs, devotionals—the thesis statement traditionally appears at the end of the introduction and a restated thesis (different words) at the beginning of the conclusion.

You can learn the craft of writing, regardless of your English background. Here are some suggestions for improving your writer’s IQ:

• Attend a writer’s conference and take workshops that address your areas of weakness.
• Read classic literature and notice the sentence structure and vocabulary.
• Read writing in your genre of choice and take notes from a writer’s perspective—how does the author accomplish his/her goal?
• Read Spark Notes for a book while you read it. Learn to analyze the themes and literary devices.
• Join or form a book club. Read books with people who like breaking down the plot, theme, and characters (fiction) or discuss and debate a topic (nonfiction).
• Take a grammar course at a community college, hire a grammar tutor, or work through a high school grammar textbook.
• Join or form a writer’s critique group and peer edit each other’s work.

Pride is the biggest detriment to improving as a writer. Don’t be too embarrassed to ask for help or too offended to accept critique. Good writing requires time, rewrites, and basic agony.

Get into the habit of having people read your work and give you feedback. When you’ve gotten used to that, ask people who aren’t your family or friends. Blogging provides a good avenue to grow as a writer to strangers. Ask for reactions and take the criticisms.

Whenever someone makes a suggestion, don’t defend yourself. Consider what they’re saying. After all, you’re writing to readers, not to yourself. You need to understand how your writing hits people. Does it make sense? Is your tone harsh or critical? Do you make big leaps in logic? Are you communicating original ideas?

Writers who participate in critique groups are writers who eventually get published. They can handle the criticism, rejection, and self-editing required to move their writing from a personal hobby to a ministry to unknown readers. If you want to reach a broader audience, you must eliminate these common errors from your writing.

Sue Schlesman is an award-winning author, freelance writer, speaker, and ministry leader. Her books have won multiple industry awards. For over 35 years, her profound insights and humble vulnerability have spread hope and healing worldwide through print, online, radio, and podcast mediums. Sue has a BA in creative writing and a master’s in theology and culture; she has taught English grammar, literature, and writing to students of all ages for almost 40 years. Sue and her husband Shane have three adult sons, two daughters-in-law, a beautiful granddaughter, and a new grandson on the way. Sue loves art, travel, missions, literature, and almost any dessert.

Written by Martin Wiles

As a child, I loved to watch Looney Tunes on Saturday mornings. One of my favorites was Foghorn Leghorn, a large rooster who was always trying to outsmart the family watchdog. But the episodes I enjoyed most featured a scrawny little weasel named Willy. He appeared in three episodes: Plop Goes the Weasel, Weasel Stop, and Weasel While You Work.

Willy was a persistent little weasel, so Foghorn—in order not to be eaten or have his flock eaten—found himself entangled with this pesky little varmint. He tried to put him on the trail of the Barnyard Dawg by dressing the dog like a chicken. After all, what weasel would not rather have a large chicken?   

True to life, we generally associate the weasel with chickens. And rightly so. They have ways of weaseling into chicken yards and coops to kill chickens or suck their eggs. But as a writer and editor, I have discovered that weasels are not relegated to barnyards.

In writing, as it relates to redundancy and wordiness, weasels are words or phrases that sneak into our writing, making it less than excellent. Since these are typically pet words (so familiar we barely notice them) or phrases we use to make our writing sound impressive, we often use them without a second glance. Thus, our writing appears to be whole—as does the egg that the weasel has sucked dry—but it is not.

As editors, we may not use the exact words or phrases the writer does, making it easier for us to help them snag the weasels. Additionally, it is always easier for someone else to trap what we cannot. Being familiar with the most common weasel words and phrases enables us to do a good job and helps us help writers become better writers.

Some of the more common weasel words and phrases follow:

•           Allegedly

•           Appears to

•           Arguably

•           Can

•           Commonly

•           Could

•           Many

•           Seemingly

•           Suggests

•           Supposedly

•           Estimated

•           Potentially

An easy way for us to catch these weasels is to use Word’s Find feature to check whether the writer has overused any of these words.

Weasels weigh down writing, sucking the life from what would otherwise warm our hearts. Like a gardener who weeds out grass and weeds from their flowers or vegetables, let’s weed out those weasels so the writing can shine.ic.

Martin Wiles is an author, pastor, English teacher, freelance editor who resides in Greenwood, South Carolina. He is a Gold PEN member and PEN instructor, the managing editor for VineWords: Devotions and More, and the Managing Editor for Christian Devotions. He is the founder/editor of the internationally recognized devotion site, Love Lines from God. His most recent book, Grits, Grace, and Grands, is available on Amazon. He has also been published in numerous publications. He is the husband of one, the father of two, and the grandfather of seven.