2024 was a good, solid year focusing on simplicity. I wish you all a healthy, peaceful, and fulfilling 2025!
It’s my custom to compile a freelancer’s annual report to take stock, reflect back and plan (and dream) forward.
[A Canva slide show is embedded below with highlights of my report. The full text follows in the body of this post.]
Annual highlights 2024 by Ema, The Clarity EditorA solid year
As with last year, my motto for this year was “simplify.”
Some things are better.
I repeat what I wrote last year: I have
- more standard operating procedures (SOPs) and checklists in place, and I’m refining them. That means
- each editing project gets the best, consistent treatment
- details of each project are not lost, even weeks later
- there is less room for error and duplication
- less pressure to be on social media: if I can’t post for a week or two, I don’t worry about it (inspired by the Social Slowdown, by Meg Casebolt).
Overall, I feel more solid in how I manage my work.
Some things still need work.
I am still working on getting better at creating estimates/quotes and editing to a client’s budget. It’s hard to get over the urge to do everything I can and instead focus on doing the “best job possible in the time available” (my main learning from the Efficient Editing course with Hester Higton).
Motto for next year: Maintain
My keyword for 2025 is “maintain”—to nurture what I’ve built so I can welcome new opportunities. (Maintenance is underappreciated. See the Freakonomics podcast “In Praise of Maintenance”.)
That means continuing to build my systems. It also means listening to the wisdom of my older self on what I want to spend my time on.
Thank you for letting me be a part of your 2024. Best wishes for a healthy, peaceful, and fruitful 2025!
—Ema Naito, The Clarity Editor
p.s. There is so much going on globally that infuriates and frustrates me. I won’t use social media to talk about it but will act in other ways.
Editing
Thank you for entrusting me with your written words. Your confidence and our relationship mean the world to me.
Clients
I am proud to serve my clients, whether they come to me for one time or are regulars. (Disclaimer: mentioning them here does not mean they endorse me.)
International development
UNITAR Division for Prosperity.
Academia
VoxEU.org and Centre for Economic Policy Research. Six years and counting 🙂
EcoMag.
Individual scholars.
Private sector
A Japanese clinic. Applied plain language principles in communicating about health.
A global diversity, equity and inclusion consulting firm. Reviewed a staff manual for a large philanthropic organization.
Other individuals. A communication specialist. An international development specialist.
Trainings & talks given
- CIEP Cloud East: a 10-minute summary of a CIEP2024 session, for fellow editors
- UNITAR Division for Prosperity: a 40-minute training on making charts that tell a story
Learning and professional development
Continuing professional development is essential to make sure we editors keep our skills and understanding up to date. (Plus, it’s fun!)
Conferences
Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading (CIEP) 2024. Sessions on communicating with our clients, handling tricky editing issues, freelancing outside the box, and others.
I love that CIEP continues to run hybrid conferences—yay for access!
Editing-related training
- Efficient editing (Hester Higton, CIEP)
- AI ethics for editors (Amy Frushour, ACES)
- The power of checklists (Samantha Enslen, ACES)
- Implementing plain language as a strategic priority (Plain Language Institute)
- Developmental editing for academics (Laura Portwood-Stacer)
A shout-out to the CIEP Cloud East group for the great camaraderie and sharing. Thanks especially to the coordinators academic editor Sarah Kitaoji and fantasy fiction editor Joanne Taylor for keeping the monthly sessions fun as well as useful.
Non-formal learning
Apart from formal training, I also learn a lot from blogs, articles, social media posts, and the occasional podcast.
I try to track and use of all the learnings by capturing them in my Second Brain (conceptualized by Tiago Forte) and then processing them into blogs. Blogging is a big part of my learning, so I hope I can carve out more time for it next year.
Learning goals for next year: keep practicing how to edit more efficiently, learn some basics of writing/tweaking macros, practice remediating PDFs and making EPUBs, and brush up on grammar.
Best books of the year
Affiliate links: If you click on an Amazon link and buy the book, you will be contributing to my coffee fund at no extra cost to you—thank you!
Related to writing and editing
It appears I didn’t read many writing-related books this year. If you’re looking for recommendations, check out my all-time favorites.
You can also sign up to get occasional writing and accessibility tips from me. In 2024, subscribers got 7 tips. Read them all if you’ve missed them.
Figuratively and literally, the biggest additions to my editor’s library were:
Fun books
For fun, I read a lot of fantasy books. Titles I enjoyed:
- Nettle and Bone (T. Kingfisher): a lovely mix of cozy, quirky humor, and fantasy. Warm characters. Plus if you like dogs, there’s a bone dog.
- Strange the Dreamer (Laini Taylor): magical language, imagery, and story with a bit of bizarreness. Warm characters.
- The Tainted Cup (Robert Jackson Bennett): a murder mystery set in a twisted, earthy fantasy world with leviathans as the earth-shattering force of disaster. Unusual.
- Babel (R.F. Kuang): not sure if this counts as fantasy and didn’t find it great as a novel, but the ideas were powerful. Memorable.
I may have reached a (temporary?) saturation point for the genre. Let’s see what my 2025 reading list will be like.
The Collective
I’m humbled to have some amazing women solopreneurs to learn from and bounce ideas off of. I’m especially grateful to Sarah Black for bringing us together.
The fab team:
- Sarah Black, inclusive communications strategist, Athru Communications
- Cath Brew, global LGBTQ+ consultant and coach, Drawn to a Story
- Trisha Carter, cross-cultural coach, TransCultural Careers
- Janine Christie, Your Voice and Copy Kickstarter
- Jane Ordaz Stubbs, The Virtual Wingwoman
- Petra Trudell, writer and editor
Hopes for 2025
The top three things I hope to do in 2025 … are exactly the same as what I hoped for the past few years. I’m consistent 😆
Yet again, I didn’t get to creating videos or brushing up on grammar. But it’s good to have ideas and aspirations, no?
That’s a wrap! May 2025 be a healthy, peaceful, and fulfilling one for you and yours. I look forward to being of service to you again 🙂
If you would like to discuss whether we might be a good fit for your writing project, please send me details via the contact form or email me at info@theclarityeditor.com.
Cover image by Ema Naito.
