Her Story
About Christine
I'm currently an editor and journalist for my own company, Midnight Scribe, and I've been in this field for about 7 years as a writer. I majored in writing literature and publishing at Emerson College, then got an MFA in creative writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts. I worked at the Boston Globe for a few years as a writer and editor for the sponsored section, but I really wanted to get back into the creative writing type field, so I started my own business and began taking clients who write memoirs and novels. I also write for the Providence Business News. In my typical day, I'm editing people's books - I start with a sample edit, reading the first chapter or first few chapters to see if it's a good fit and if they like my editing style. Then with my long-term clients, I evaluate their writing and we have meetings every week to talk about what I noticed in my evaluations and what should be edited. Some clients just want feedback and they edit themselves, while others want me to edit directly, so it really varies per client depending on what people are looking for.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Christine
01What do you attribute your success to?
I think, like I was saying before, definitely confidence, and just plain old hard work. Also, a lot of marketing - I feel like a lot of having your own business is just putting yourself out there a lot, and not getting discouraged at first when you don't get responses from it, so persistence is a big one. Just keep going. And, you know, change your strategy, change your angle, get advice from other people, but just don't give up.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
Probably don't sell yourself short, because I feel like earlier in my career, I had big ideas and ambitions, but I had less confidence about it. So I feel like confidence is really key. Like, you can have a lot of skill, and you can have a lot of intelligence, but if you're not confident that you can make it out there with them, you're not gonna get anywhere.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
I guess, yeah, this ties back to things I was saying before, too. Yeah, I guess read, read a lot, read a lot of books, put yourself out there a lot. Use social media, harness, yeah, leverage social media to its highest potential, network a lot. Yeah, I feel like some people, especially younger people, kind of don't see the full advantage of just talking to a lot of people in person and networking that way, but I think that's been super helpful for me, just getting to know a lot of people and it just tends to line up that way, that you end up meeting people that know people that need your services, or that directly need your services, so I think that's really important.
04What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
I think honesty is a good one, being a team player. I guess, yeah, treating other people the way you would want to be treated, and so kindness, yeah, kindness, honesty, being a team player, I think those are good ones.
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