New Writing Venture Has Officially Started

Whether you're a beginner gardener, master gardener or just have decades of experience with gardening, there has been at least one time you have landed on the website Home Guides SF Gate looking for gardening tips, plant growing advice or how to articles.

I know I have spent quite a bit of time there myself over the years.

Home Guides- Sf Gate website

I won't go into too many behind the scenes details, but I am currently working as a freelancer and contributor to this website as of two weeks ago. I originally was going to be a contributing writer for the garden category, but after doing some editing (which I have some experience with from my days as a newspaper reporter doing copy editing) for the website, I have settled in for a new venture in my writing career. I do what is classified as editing and punching up the tone of the article, researching the resources and adding personal experiences when the actual author/writer doesn't have a contribution to make.

I am thoroughly enjoying the experience! I LOVE research. I have a passion for making an article the best it can be. And I have such a fervor for gardening. This is perfect for me!

Decades Of Writing

My writing career officially began in the summer of 1999, when I applied for a stringer position at a local newspaper in rural Michigan. From there it blossomed into freelance writing gigs for multiple newspapers, online content, ghost writing, greeting card verses and finally, as a staff writer for another local newspaper (Yeah, the competition of my first stringer job).

It's hard for me conceive that I have been writing (professionally) for 21 years!

Even as a teenager I had a love for reading and writing.I can remember days on end that we (my family) would travel across the state, and quite a few times out of state, for my older brothers because they were in the state men's league of soccer and we would go where they were playing. To occupy my time my mind always wondered and developed story lines... plots... and characters; usually based off of someone I knew. I would sit under the vinyl canopy near the team's bench with pen and notebook in hand and be scribbling as the fans and crowd around be boo'ed or cheered for a play on the field.

In our third bedroom I have boxes upon boxes of old journals, writing samples, outlines and research notes. Some days I'll open a notebook and just read. Then new extensions of the already spelled out synopsis begins to take over.

A New Day Is Dawning

After all the years of writing I never suspected I would like to behind the scenes doing editing. Considering I have limited experience with it, and gosh knows I CANNOT edit my own writing, I am really having a good time with this new writing/editing enterprise.

Who knows where this new endeavor will lead me to next.

I have no plans to stop. All in all the editing process takes such little time and I even approached the managing editor for more work. The pay is... more than I had expected and I am pleased with how this helps add to our retirement and savings.

Yesterday I edited three articles for a grand total of maybe an hour for the day. After I put together the @qurator DQ and HIVE DQ, I set off to work on the articles in the queue for editing; the earlier in the day the better as my mind is awake and sharp.

I haven't mentioned this new project publicly for a couple of weeks because I wanted to see how it would play out with all my other tasks, projects and online classes. But so far... I have settled in for what I see as a long-term new career.

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