Erin Brenner's Blog

Plan, Pause, Restart: Three Ways to Make Holiday Time Off Truly Restful

By Sean Brenner

Slowly but surely, the holidays are sneaking up on us. For many professionals, that means a well-deserved break from work. Personally, the prospect of not having to think about anything work-related for a week or two is what keeps me going through the late fall. If you’re the same way, you might already be counting the days to your break.

But taking a break from work can be easier said than done, especially if it’s for an extended period. It can be difficult to keep your mi...

Project Management Software, Part 2: Making the Decision

When team members can’t quickly determine a project’s status, they waste time hunting for answers—time they should spend working on the project itself. And without a single source of truth, there’s no guarantee the status they find will even be accurate, leading to missed deadlines and frustrated stakeholders.

In part one of this series, we explored simple solutions to combat this chaos and identified three signs your team might be ready for project management (PM) software. 

But what does...

Project Management Software, Part 1: Recognizing the Need

Recently, Right Touch Editing had a client project that involved editing 100 short files, categorized into two topics. The files were located in two SharePoint folders, one for each topic. Within each topic were three folders: to be edited, edited, and finalized. This provided a good structure to work from but we lacked a client-provided file tracker. 

We had a week to complete the project, and each day the client wanted a progress report. Because we lacked a tracker, I spent time each day ta...

Refilling the Well: Bouncing Back from Creative Burnout

By Sean Brenner

Everyone suffers from burnout now and again. A full work schedule will eventually leave anyone feeling drained, even without all the other nonsense life inflicts on us. 

This is especially true for professionals working in creative fields. Exercising creativity takes a lot out of you, and it requires more than many other kinds of knowledge work. These sorts of tasks demand your full attention, and they often demand imagination as well.

Writing and editing are creative wo...

Speed Up Your Editing Without Losing Your Human Edge

Generative AI (GenAI) seems to be coming for editors’ jobs. When asked simple grammar or style questions, it can often (but not always!) give a correct answer. Tools like Grammarly, Hemingway Editor, and editGPT use AI to correct text quickly.

But GenAI is no replacement for the human editor. It often fails to understand and preserve a nuanced writing style. It lacks creativity and judgment, reaching only for the most likely next word.

Still, editors are forced to compete against the medio...

Discerning AI-Generated Text from Human Writing, Part 2

By Sean Brenner

In my last post, I discussed issues with the tells and detectors meant to discern AI-generated text from human writing and how those sorts of testing methods were inherently flawed. 

While it’s difficult to discern between the two, it isn’t impossible. You just need to understand what makes human writing and generative AI (GenAI) content different. That difference is fundamental, and, to some extent, it can be used to tell human writing and AI-generated content apart. 

T...

Discerning AI-Generated Text from Human Writing, Part 1

By Sean Brenner

If you’re like me, you got tired of hearing about generative AI (GenAI) a long time ago. Even if you’re not, you’ve no doubt been inundated in the flood of GenAI products and content in the past few years. 

As the tech industry’s new favorite toy has spread, part of the conversation around it has fixated on how to sniff out AI-generated content—especially AI-generated text, which can be alarmingly difficult to discern from real writing. 

For businesses, this is especiall...

The Power of the Midyear Pause: Refocusing Your Editing Business

Many freelance editors I know, myself included, do an annual review in December or January, making plans for the coming year. We look back at the previous year and dream of where we want to take our business next. We may even choose a theme or Word of the Year to guide us along. 

But then what? How many of us check back in before November rolls around again? 

On a rare quiet morning earlier this month, fueled by caffeine, I realized I’d been so busy with daily tasks that my monthly reviews...

Deadline Doom: How to Write Smart, Not Frantic

By Sean Brenner

In my last blog post, I wrote about how procrastination isn’t always a bad thing; sometimes, you can even use it to your advantage. 

But if you procrastinate too much, you could end up not having enough time to complete your manuscript before the deadline. That’s a panic scenario, and one that many writers find themselves in sooner or later. 

Sometimes you can get an extension on the deadline. When that’s an option, take it. Rushing to complete a manuscript is bad for bo...

AI in Publishing: Trust Issues Writers Need to Be Aware Of

The publishing industry is experiencing another technological disruption with the rise of generative AI (GenAI). While GenAI tools can help authors in several ways, they also introduce new legal and ethical concerns. 

Authors are deeply divided on whether AI can be used in writing. According to a recent BookBub survey of over 1,200 authors, 48% do not use AI, nor do they plan to. 

If writers (and editors!) are going to use GenAI, what do we need to know about it, what should we be concerned about,...