When I made the decision to step away from teacher PD and make @EdHistory101 my full-time gig, I had to decide what kind of editor I wanted to be. I made a list and two of the items were "progressive/feminist" and "trustworthy."

Unless an author has a style guide they have to use (I've converted from being an APA fan to being a Chicago stan), I use progressive language shaped by Sum of Us's guide ( https://s3.amazonaws.com/s3.sumofus.org/images/SUMOFUS_PROGRESSIVE-STYLEGUIDE.pdf) and The Subversive Copy Editor by Carol Fisher Saller.

There is no book on being a trustworthy editor, but a key part of that for me was confidentiality. The writing process is idiosyncratic and some people have all sorts of feelings about working with an editor.

Which means I can't, and won't, namedrop without clients' explicit consent (and I'm not asking for the sake of a Twitter thread. That seems excessive. Even for me.)

So, no end-of-year thread bragging about their amazing work. But I can share some of what I learned this year.

I learned that even when you offer a pay what you can/are able to rate because of the disparate impact of the pandemic on women and primary caretakers... they pay the rate on the invoice.

I learned that even a feminist-minded editor working with a feminist-minded group of authors can struggle to avoid the word "man-made" when something is, well, made by people.

That I will never be comfortable with "which" versus "that", no matter how many guides I check.

I now know, which I didn't anticipate, that editing other people's website copy is excruciatingly challenging, and sometimes, passing on the name of a branding expert is the best thing I can do for a client.

I've learned there's an entire body of research related to Black joy. And reading about it in academic texts about school is, unto itself, a joyful experience.

I learned that shifting from other people's writing to my own writing is 1000 times harder than I expected it to be but also, writing during a pandemic is a gabillion times harder than it was before. #ItsJustMath

That the way so many of us think about disability is so very harmful and there are lots of incredibly thoughtful people working for change. And using "people-first" language is a moot point if the policies aren't putting people first.

I am still not used to coming across a Twitter friend's name in a reference list I'm editing and I will share a carefully cropped screenshot with said friend. Like a dork.

Speaking of reference lists, I've learned checking citations and references brings me untold joy. I love it. I went with @zotero as my main library builder and building libraries for clients is entirely too rewarding for my brain.

I've learned that organizations like @EFAFreelancers are essential to figuring out what it means to make this my full-time gig and their courses and resources are invaluable.

I have no idea what 2021 will hold but I'm incredibly grateful to the authors and educators who trusted me with their words in 2020. I suspect I'll remain pedantic. I suspect my lastworditis will go uncured but thankfully, remain contained to Twitter.

I'm fairly confident my assistants will remain useless and perfect.