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Keep Calm and Trust

Keep Calm and Trust

© Photograph by Ayesha Chari Easier said than done sometimes. Some of us trust more easily than others. Nature, experience, belief or habit, what makes us trust in one situation and not in another is probably an instinct primal enough to knock down fear. If any of you...

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Identity, Editing, Business Craft

Identity, Editing, Business Craft

Remoulding Identities, Rewriting Narratives Identity. Defined and conditioned most strongly by external worlds, yet entirely our own. Questioned and labelled unhesitatingly by family, friends, strangers, yet intrinsically of, by and for the self. * * * I write for a...

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Other writings, interview etc.

Wherever you go, there you are:

Not-so-new learnings from parenting and editing

In this post, Ayesha Chari shares her experiences on running a freelance editing business while bringing up a young child. She opens up about her struggles to juggle work and childcare, some of the ways she’s had to adapt her work routines, and the things that have helped her to get through it all

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Making choices:

Mindfulness in difficult times

How do you edit when you’re distracted? What do you do when you’re restless? I tend to stare out the window. A lot. Or people watch or nature watch. But mostly just gaze into nothingness. I daydream my way into new adventures, not-so-new black holes, and back to reality.

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“As a publisher and writer for over 50 years, I have much experience of editors and copyeditors. I can truthfully say that Ayesha Chari is the most brilliant editor I have ever worked with. She was my editor on an enormous book I wrote a few years ago and a shorter (particularly complicated) book. I have done my share of editing other people, but it is not so easy being on the receiving end. Ayesha handled my insecurities and vanities with great tact and won me over to make changes, especially ones I didn’t want to make. ‘Murder your darlings’ – she didn’t actually use those words, but that was the painful demand made upon me (amidst many less dramatic proposals) by a consummate reader with an impeccable ear. No gain without pain, they say. Absolutely true.”

Anthony Rudolf, author of Silent Conversations: A Reader’s Life (2013) and Jerzyk (2015)

In response to a developmental review detailing changes to reshape author’s thesis into a publication (since published as Governing Compact Cities, 2018): “This is a really solid and competent review and entirely in line with what I was hoping for. ... I just got a response from [the publisher] and they would like to publish the book based on the revisions overview.”

– Philipp Rode, Executive Director, LSE Cities, London School of Economics and Political Science

“The copyediting was thorough, professional, and very accurate. Ayesha clearly engaged with the paper, proactively suggesting changes that most other editors normally do not bother with (e.g. adding the missing references in track-changes, rather than simply telling the author to do it him/herself). Ayesha also demonstrated familiarity with the topic by providing the full acronyms where these were missing, making my revision much easier and quicker. Last but not least, Ayesha was very responsive to all my comments and questions to an extent that I have rarely experienced in my previous work and publications.”

– Giovanni Pasquali, Global Development Institute, University of Manchester, UK, Research on global value chains and economic development in low-income countries

“The editing was superb. I like the constructive comments provided to improve readability of the paper. I also like the way you take referencing style seriously, [marking] those which do not appear in the referencing list or those added but are not in the paper.”

– Emanoel Alfred, The Institute of African Leadership for Sustainable Development (UONGOZI Institute), Dar es Salam, Tanzania, co-author of paper on strategic environmental assessment

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Independent Editor

Sensitive editing for academic and scholarly writing. Because your ideas are important.