Exactly zero percent of us start out as expert editors as soon as we start taking on clients. Like anything in life, it takes an enormous amount of practice, effort, and energy to learn the skills of editing while building a business, and maybe some substantial time before we start to feel at ease in our skills.
I've been observing my fellow editors and there seems to be a pattern of growth that we all go through, and I postulate that confidence is directly related to how many patterns people have edited.
Something magical happens over our first 100 jobs, no matter how long it takes.
Job number 1 to 30
This is the season of learning to swim. We may have taken a course that gave us some practice and an outline of what to do, but when we land that first paid job (hooray!), we might feel a little shaky. We might ask ourselves often, Now what am I supposed to do? We might have some (or a lot of) fear that we will miss something; we might be overly worried about what our client thinks of our agreement, our queries, or our emails.
We hustle to find work, broadcasting everywhere that we are taking on clients. We take any job we can land. We send those first few invoices and realize, oh hey, we have to set up our accounting system, too. We might only charge a flat rate for our work because we are still really slow. Some days we wonder why we are doing this, and then we get a really, really clever pattern in our inbox, and we remember that we love this.
We persist. Every job seems a little easier as we build out our systems and our checklists and our processes. We make friends in the tech editor community and find we aren't alone in the little frustrations that always come with doing service work. We start a testimonial page on our website.
Job number 31 to 60
We've found our groove, at least on most days we edit. We take a deep breath when we start a pattern, and nod to ourselves, I can do this. We're missing less things and building out our systems. We're editing faster, and have created resources and spreadsheets to help ourselves. We take the leap into charging by the hour and keeping timesheets. We have a few repeat clients who refer us to others. We pay our first tax bill and realize we are making a profit.
We've honed our communication with our clients and have made lasting connections with many of them. We've hit some bumps in some jobs, made mistakes, messed up. But we recover faster and have learned how to make things right.
We know now what we really like to edit and what just doesn't work for us. We play around with niching down to one area of our craft and start talking about it in our marketing. We research charting software and courses that would help us provide more services to our clients. We read patterns and pattern books for fun and automatically think of ways they could be improved. We find our editing brain is hard to turn off, but we don't mind.
Job number 61 to 100
We have editing muscle memory now. We're faster and are starting to see errors and patterns of errors easier. We make a plan to raise our rate because our speed is up. Our checklists and workflow systems are robust, powerful tools to move us through the edits efficiently and with accuracy. We might let non-editing work go and just be a tech editor full time.
Maker friends ask us to help them with patterns they can't sort out. We find we don't have to market ourselves as fervently, but still show up to answer people's questions and make connections.
Referrals are coming more quickly and our calendar is booking ahead into the next month. We love getting all the jobs and are excited to be hired by designers, but slowly we start courting burnout. We're tired of looking at patterns and may lose our crafting and editing mojo for a bit. We might start to dread our inbox.
So we reach out to friends for help. We schedule breaks. We set regular hours and boundaries around work so we start loving our job again. We explore ways to raise our revenue and leverage our skills.
100 patterns. That's what it takes to grow from inexperience to experience, from stress to confidence and ease. Don't give up!
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What do you think of my theory? What number are you at? Hit reply and tell me!
Hat tip to Josh Spector who wrote about only doing something if you are willing to do it 100 times.
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Open for enrollment
Your experience with needles and yarn is valuable, and it can help designers create better patterns.
This 6-week course will teach you how to look at knitting patterns in a new light, how to take them apart and understand the pieces, how to turn that knowledge into a job, and how to get clients.
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In the FB Group
When converting measurements between inches and cm, do you use the factor 2.5 or 2.54?
What is the best practice for dividing stitches between the front and back of a garment?
How would you create a crochet chart that is more inclusive for those who are color blind or print in black and white?
Musing on the properties twisted rib,
Sarah
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I am a knitting technical editor, author, and sweater nerd. I like coffee, puzzles, many books (all at once), and a good sniff of yarn fumes. This Hub is all about helping *you* find success as a technical editor from any direction that works.
When you are ready:
- Learn to tech edit knitting patterns or crochet patterns. Get training and real pattern practice before you take on clients.
- Schedule a strategy session with me. Go deep and get unstuck.
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- Or just book a virtual cuppa with me. How can I help you?
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