Meet Jennifer Silva Redmond

 

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jennifer Silva Redmond a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Jennifer, so good to have you with us today. We’ve always been impressed with folks who have a very clear sense of purpose and so maybe we can jump right in and talk about how you found your purpose?

I found my purpose in life in a most unusual way, by taking a complete leap of faith. My new husband and I had just gotten married in San Diego and were planning to live in New York City where I’d been living and working as an actress (and waitress, of course). But out of the blue, we decided to take off a couple of months and sail his boat down to Baja California, Mexico, and then go back to New York the longest slowest way — even though I knew almost nothing about sailing.
The change from busy NYC to the desolate beauty of Baja was a shock and I suddenly went from performing to audiences to having an audience of one. My urge to be creative didn’t leave me though, and I soon turned to writing stories and essays and poems. The more I explored writing, the more I grew to love it, and I enjoyed being able to create on my own schedule, no matter where I was. Each day I wrote about what we were doing—from taking a hike through the desert to making a sea voyage—and as the months went by I worked on making my writing more descriptive and powerful.
We ended up spending a year in Baja but then we went on through the Panama Canal to Florida, and eventually took the boat back to San Diego, and then back to Baja again. I love writing, but I still craved more interaction with others, though I didn’t miss acting. So I founded a literary magazine with my husband and found that I loved working with authors on their writing almost as much as writing my own stories. And editing someone else’s work provided me with the human interaction I needed, but could still be done from a boat in any location. Once we returned to San Diego, I got a job in publishing, took a decade to fully learn my trade, and became a freelance editor in 2011. I still write—I finally published my Baja sailing memoir last year— and I have a small following on Substack, but I have come to terms with the the fact that my main purpose in life is as a writing teacher and an editor of other people’s books.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

I am a freelance book editor, working directly with authors as well as with publishers. I also teach classes on writing and editing at the Southern California Writers Conference in San Diego and at San Diego Writers, Ink, both online and in-person. My specialty is content/structural editing, which often gets overlooked, since most people think of editing as only copy editing. I am not a copy editor—what I do is read a manuscript and tell the author whether it is a book or not, what is missing or what needs to be added, or what can help the structure to work better. I work in all genres, from memoirs to mysteries. A good story is a good story.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

My greatest skill in editing is being able to read fast and remember what I’ve read in clear and specific ways. My memory was much better, though, back when I was a young actress. I am glad I don’t have to memorize lines now!
I really like working with people, I find human beings endlessly fascinating, so that helps when working with clients and students.
I’m a good teacher and presenter, or so I’ve been told. My years on stage have made it very easy for me to get up and talk in public.
Reading good books definitely can make you a better writer–if you want to be a better writer, read more!

Tell us what your ideal client would be like?

My ideal client is someone who is in love with what they have written, but also able to hear criticism. If you can’t be open to hearing that something isn’t working in your manuscript (and this is not just true of books, but anything you produce or work on) then you have no chance to ever make it better. I am always surprised to run into people who want to sell a book, but are afraid to let people read their manuscript, because they don’t want to hear criticism. So, someone who is open to improvement but also very passionate about their work is the sort of person I want to work with. The job of getting a book from manuscript to published book is a long and sometimes tedious job, so you have to be willing to put in those hours.

Contact Info:

Image Credits

Russel Redmond

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