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Keep Calm and Trust

09.01.22

© 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...

Identity, Editing, Business Craft

08.12.21

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...

Other writings, interview etc.

‘Bridging the gap on neurodiversity: Communication styles and strategies for working together’

A 2023 CIEP conference panel discussion.

This is a LinkedIn article reporting on a conference panel discussion on neurodiversity and communication.

On [11 September 2023], I attended a panel discussion on ‘Bridging the gap on neurodiversity: Communication styles and strategies for working together’ by the brilliant quartet of Laura Burge (writer, editor, writing coach), Katherine Kirk (specialist fiction editor), AJ Harman (Outside the Box coach and writer) and Anna Knight (trauma-informed coach). I came away thinking I need to stash my thoughts and takeaways from this session somewhere so I can go back to it whenever I want. Because I’m trying to consciously use less paper and because the bird site died, this is as good as anywhere else.

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Accountability and the guilt of triggering change

This is a LinkedIn article on procrastination, the fear of change and accountability in running an editorial business.

TL;DR – see link [in the article] and buy book; discover the editor in you.

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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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