Report from the 2023 Editorial Freelancers Association Conference
I am currently serving as Events chair on the EFA board of governors, so this post is in no way a dispassionate review of the conference: I am tremendously proud of the work done by the EFA staff, my colleagues on the board, and the many volunteers who contributed to making this conference a huge success. Contrary to my board title, I was not involved in the planning; my role is to oversee the EFA presence at events held by other organizations.
But I did try to help out as much as possible during the conference itself, which mostly meant signing up to support speakers during their presentations. I truly love this role because the help you give is often immediate and visible and deeply appreciated by speakers who are battling technical problems or just the natural pre-presentation butterflies. I also loved it because it meant that I was generally attending presentations in fields I don’t typically work in, and I was surprised at how much I learned that could still be applied to my own work.
Below are my top 8 takeaways from EFACon2023:
Cathy Hannabach’s keynote talk was about applying what she called “critical generosity” in our work as editors. She pointed out that being transparent about workflows, setting clear deadlines, and providing generous buffers and support structures are all ways to put that philosophy into action. She encouraged the audience to also apply that same philosophy to ourselves, making sure that we structure our work in ways that recognize we are “bodies in the world” first and foremost and deserving of rest and care.
Tenesha Curtis gave an effective presentation on how to guide writers into creating an outline by starting with five essential elements (what she calls the “Five Ps”: Person, Pain, Prize, Pitfalls, Promise) and showing them how they can use a very simple structure and expand from there. Curtis has a background in social work, and I loved her wise answer to the question of how you can persuade a reluctant writer to make an outline: You can’t. Let writers do what they need to do, she counseled; don’t turn the editing process into a power play.
I have been doing more presentations myself in recent years, so I did make sure I attended Katy Grenfell’s session on stage presence. Grenfell, a longtime professional actor, gave excellent, concrete advice about how to ground and center yourself in a room, as well as tips on how to structure a presentation that an audience can follow. Her advice if you are tanking? Start asking questions of your audience so you can zero in on who they are and what they want to learn from you. Bonus: We were treated to a rendition of “Let Me Entertain You” from Gypsy!
I don’t work on any kind of sports writing, but I am a big baseball fan, so I loved Cecilia Tan’s presentation on baseball style. (I also loved being in a room of baseball fans and experts that was entirely women.) I especially loved the detailed discussion of emerging terms for the runner who, starting with this current season, gets placed on second base when a game is tied in extra innings. Broadcasters started using the term “ghost runner”, but that has its own different meaning in the context of backyard baseball. Tan likes the term “Manfred man” (which carries with it some shade for MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred, who has advocated for shorter games) but believes “zombie runner” is taking off among baseball writers.
Ebonye Gussine Wilkins ran an eye-opening workshop on how to apply principles of inclusivity and sensitivity on AI-generated text. I am not at all anti-AI, but I do think this is an area we need to be especially alert to when using this tool so we don’t inadvertently promote stereotypes or encode bias. Wilkins guided us through editing specific examples; what emerged is that using specific and concrete (rather than cloudy and generic) language can eliminate problems while also strengthening the writing overall.
I saw Cecilia Tan present a second time at her keynote titled “Freelance Heroes: The Cost of Saving the Day.” Like Hannabach earlier in the day, Tan reminded us that we are human and need to take care of ourselves, even though we wield superpowers. (Her slides on common editing villains “Stickler Man” and “Stet Boy” – both of them vanquished by Captain Markup – got huge laughs from the audience.)
Sinetra Bowdry began her presentation on implicit bias with a fantastic audience exercise called the “tag game”, which involved giving participants sticky notes of various colors with a square, circle, or triangle on them and then asking us, without talking, to group ourselves. The results were illuminating for all of us! I also appreciated her sound advice to be a “co-developer” with editing clients in helping them eliminate bias.
Olson Pook’s talk, “Telling the Story: Integrating Narrative Elements into Academic Writing,” showed the power of metaphor at work. He visualizes narrative elements as a “bright red thread” that can, once identified, often be straightened and/or lengthened to guide readers through a complex text.
Most sessions were recorded and there are plans afoot to make those recordings available both to in-person attendees and EFA members. With most time slots featuring six concurrent sessions, even in-person attendees were barely able to scrape the surface of the programming offered at the event. (You can see the full schedule here.) It will take some time to process the recordings and figure out the next steps, but stay tuned! The board and staff are committed to making the programming as accessible as possible.
Check out our Resources page for more in-depth articles on writing, revising, polishing, and publishing your novel. Sign up for our weekly newsletter for fresh content!