This is why I love editing: always learning. To me, snowballing is a thing you do after the cold stuff falls from the sky in winter. ❄️ But I’m copy-editing a piece about research whose data collection involved snowballing. After a moment’s confusion, I now know that it’s also a sampling method 😁

I'm notoriously bad with spiders. But I figured a book about them would do me good and be interesting – and it did and it was 🥳 Yes, it also did make me wince at times! But it was really interesting and I was glad I'd braved it.

Would you say ‘there are a plethora’ or ‘there is a plethora’? Does your answer vary depending on the context? This is a good example of how proofreading is about so much more than typos. #AmProofreading

I’m alternating chapters of a gorgeous photo book about nature and an academic book about reusing and upcycling. One’s a proofread on a typeset PDF, the other is a copy-edit in tracked changes in Word. Both are fascinating. I love my job! 😍 #AmEditing #FreelanceLife

While looking for something else, I’ve found one of my favourite examples of corporate speak. This was while I was sub-editor of ‘F1 Racing’ magazine, while McLaren’s new site was being built, which apparently is 23 years ago 😱

What a wonderful surprise in today’s post – a copy of @rogersteare.bsky.social’s book ‘Ethicability’. I proofread this a few weeks ago. An extra treat was discovering that Jacqueline Harvey (a @the-ciep.bsky.social friend) had also worked on it. Books really are a team effort. Thank you all 😁

Like so many of the best things in life, my Egyptology started by accident and I never could have predicted where it would take me. So here’s my Egyptology origin story. #NonFictionEditor #EditingNonFiction #NonFictionEditing #NonFiction

There you are, working in tracked changes, and you insert one letter, but Word shows two letters as having changed. What’s going on? Blog post now live on font ligatures: www.suzannearnold.com/blog/ligatures #NonFiction #EditingNonFiction #NonFictionEditing #AmEditing

A few highlights from this morning’s #StetWalk, including a gorgeous moth! #AmEditing #FreelanceLife

This was an unexpected analogy! 😂 Pick the grapes out of the quinoa, not vice versa. You can’t proofread everything at once. Instead, focus on one thing at a time, such as that examples are correctly numbered – pick out the grapes, not the quinoa. #ProofreadingNonFiction #NonFictionProofreading

I saw the Sam Ryder Jesus Christ Superstar in London last night. Stunning production. This morning, I’ve finished some corporate thought leadership. And now I’m settling in for some CPD.

I’m having a day off and have just finished ‘The Correspondent’ 😭 Beautiful, weepy, thought-provoking. I loved Virginia Evans’ answer at Women’s Prize Live on why an older character: ‘Everyone’s life is interesting. And it gets more interesting every year.’ This book delivers on that!

Trust an editor to read multiple versions of the same news story and get distracted by whether the document was found in February or May! (These are the details trained editors habitually watch out for, which is how we spot things that seem to others like incredible finds.)

This was the highlight of English Grammar Day 2026 for me: editor @tomfreeman.bsky.social on why it’s not always best to rigidly follow all ‘rules’ (or to follow all rules rigidly?). There’s greater value in ensuring that text is logically structured and clear. #EnglishGrammarDay

June was delightfully varied. And today, my plans are simple: I'm working on some accountancy guidance this morning, then will watch tennis this afternoon. #FreelanceLife #AmProofreading

Apparently the bath’s the place to be during the heatwave. She’s in there so much that I’ve taken a little fan in there for her. #Caturday

Wow. Humbled by Katherine May’s ‘Wintering’. Reading about the winter solstice on this summer solstice weekend, and how frost beautifies everything. I love sunshine and warmth, but I also love the beauty of frost – these are my own photos. #NonFiction #solstice

I’ve had a busy week, but lots of fun and was fortunate that much of my work could be taken outside. Now for a lazy weekend: stories 📚, sunshine 🌞 and snoozing 😴

I’m better at editing words than making videos, honest! Trying to make a new intro video for my website but it’s a work in progress 😂

Bit of Egyptology to start the weekend 🎉

One of the highlights of Wednesday’s Women’s Prize Live was a workshop on the art of storytelling with Silk Road Slippers. The format was simple yet powerful: a writing prompt, seven minutes to write, then read them out and get feedback. It was so good! @womensprize.bsky.social #WomensPrize

Lyse Doucet won the Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction last night. Very well deserved. This reel gives a snapshot of events this week, from a fangirl perspective. Her calm BBC reporting on the horrors of war won my admiration; her gentle humour won my heart.

Women’s Prize Live in 30 seconds: a snapshot of my day. Will post more later… @womensprize.bsky.social #WomensPrize

Fantabulous evening listening to the @womensprize.bsky.social finalists. Each read from their book, then spent a few minutes discussing it. All wonderful. Winners to be announced tomorrow. #WomensPrizeLive #WomensPrize

Excuse me while I sit here sobbing into my tea over this testimonial 😭🎉

I said yesterday I can take on more client work now that I’ve handed the journal over. So what kinds of things do I work on? Well, I can’t show you most of the corporate thought leadership, annual reports etc, so some of the examples here are from a while ago, from in-house roles.

Egyptology, business and a memoir – I always say I love variety, and you can see it in the jobs I accept 😄 This month: more business and accounting, memoir and a book by a popular author. Lucky me 🤩 #AmEditing #FreelanceLife

It's a bitter-sweet day for me – last day on the journal. I took it on on an interim basis for a year and have had a wonderful time and learned so much. And I'm still self-employed: next week, I'll be working on accountancy guidance, thought leadership, a memoir and a history book.

Rather blustery but it’s lovely and sunny so I’m working outside for part of the day. I’m running some searches on a memoir before I get going with copy-editing it. Looking forward to it. #AmEditing

And 17 May 🎉