Val Gerard - Self-Interview

Professional:

What do you like most about your job as a freelance editor/writer?

Since retiring from academic teaching and research, I have worked at a variety of jobs. I particularly enjoy retail work (in a used bookstore, plant nursery, LL Bean outlet store, and pet supply store), because it gets me out of the office and lets me interact with new and interesting people. Although finding the perfect book or doing a back-of-the-envelope landscape design for a customer is fun and rewarding, I also love the mental challenge that freelance editing provides. During eight years as a freelancer, I have worked on a wide variety of writing projects in many scientific and medical fields, and I have learned something from each project. When my client’s manuscript is accepted, their book is published, their grant proposal is funded, or their dissertation is successfully defended, I feel almost as triumphant as they do.

What levels of editing do you perform?

As a person who is somewhat obsessive about my own writing (many of my publications were accepted with no revisions required), I automatically correct grammatical errors, rewrite poorly constructed sentences, and revise poorly organized paragraphs. However, I also pay close attention to large-scale content and organization. Is all of the information necessary? Is any additional information needed for clarity? Could the order of presentation be improved? Do the conclusions logically follow the results? I also like to tinker with data presentation, to make figures and tables and the accompanying text as clear and concise as possible.

Describe your perfect client.

The client that I most enjoy working with 1) needs and appreciates my help, 2) pays attention to my advice and revisions, and 3) maintains close communication.

Describe your nightmare client.

I do not enjoy working with a client who blames everyone else (including me) for his or her own shortcomings. If someone does not take responsibility for their own actions, they cannot learn and improve.

How do you, as an editor, help a client improve his or her writing?

Clients often ask how they can improve their own writing. Having taught college-level writing courses and guided many students through graduate theses, I have a few key suggestions. First, outline before you write. It is amazing how resistant many people are to starting with an outline. It is also amazing how easy it is to jot down the major points, fill in details, add material from references, and – Voila! – the manuscript/book/proposal/dissertation is written. When I work with a client who is having problems with organization, I often suggest that they go back and write an outline, then fit the material they have already written into that outline. Second, read what you have written out loud – no matter whether to your spouse, roommate, grandmother, dog, or the mirror on the wall. Your ear will pick up grammatical and logical errors and poor sentence structure that your eye will not. Third, if you have difficulty writing, try to write as you speak. Most people who consider themselves poor writers convey information easily and accurately when they are speaking to another person. If necessary, record yourself explaining the material to someone else.

Is there any material you refuse to edit or write?

As a former educator, who taught and advised many students, I refuse to write a thesis or dissertation, or even a term paper de novo, although I am happy to help someone who is struggling to do that on their own. One of the first requests I received as a freelancer was from a doctoral student in theology, who listed five topics and asked me to write a dissertation on one of them. Needless to say, I passed on that request. The goal of education is to learn something, and a student does not learn anything by having me do their research and write their dissertation.

Personal

What do you do when you are not writing or editing?

One of my reasons for retiring from academia was to have more free time (I averaged 60-80 hours of work each week for almost 30 years). What do I do with all my "spare" time? I live in central Oregon, which is a paradise for amateur naturalists and outdoor sports enthusiasts. I hike every day with my dogs – in the woods and mountains, along the Deschutes River, and in the high desert. I also camp, canoe and kayak, fish, snowshoe, and cross-country ski. Although I don’t hunt, I have trained my dogs to retrieve, and we enjoy an occasional class in obedience or agility. I’m an avid gardener and landscaper, two challenging hobbies in the high desert. My property has a large vegetable garden, lots of fruit trees and berry bushes, and I use as much of my produce as possible. It helps that my #1 indoor interest is cooking! Since I own a 90+ year-old house, I also do a lot of patching and painting, and act as a contractor for the larger projects. Some day, I would like to get back to playing the piano and learn to paint watercolors – maybe when I really retire.

Are you involved in community service?

Being an avid (some might say rabid) dog-lover, I am actively involved in a local non-profit organization that promotes responsible dog ownership. This year, we are working with the city parks administration to provide greater access for off-leash recreation in town. The best part is that everyone I have met through volunteering is a fellow dog-lover.

What do you do for recreation and relaxation?

I have always done a lot of reading, and I have fairly eclectic taste in books. Some of my favorites are "Endurance" by Alfred Lansing, "Cat’s Cradle" by Kurt Vonnegut, "The Once and Future King" by T.H. White, and "My Family and Other Animals" by Gerald Durrell. After reading Durrell’s autobiographical book about his childhood years on Corfu, I was inspired to visit the island en route from Italy to Greece. I’ve never been a TV watcher, but I do listen to NPR and read the NY Times. I rarely go to movies, but when I do, I like old films and foreign films. "Casablanca" is the best! My taste in music is really eclectic. I listen to early music, folk, bluegrass, early rock, some jazz, some classical, some opera, and all of Gilbert and Sullivan.

Have you travelled much?

As a researcher, I travelled to every continent, except Africa. The travel was always work-related, but I usually managed to take an extra week or month to explore. My most memorable trip was six weeks in Antarctica – diving and studying mechanisms of cold adaptation in polar algae. My most interesting trip may have been a month in China in 1983, soon after the end of the Cultural Revolution. My favorite place of all was probably the south island of New Zealand, although the Australian outback was pretty neat, too. Nowadays, a three-day trip to eastern Oregon is sufficient to satisfy my travel bug.

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