Living the Writer's Life:
Melynda Boyce
By Mindy McHorse

Melynda and her family in front of the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad at
Disney World in Florida.

Melynda Boyce stepped into freelancing out of both choice and necessity, after her family and financial obligations grew exponentially in a short amount of time. Though she’s had a strong cheerleader in the wings by way of her older sister (the fabulous Jen Adams, who is director of The Professional Writers’ Alliance and also one of our favorite fellow Barefoot Writers), Melynda was able to harness the elements of freelancing that were ideal for her while also making her own mark in the world of copyediting. Discover how this flexible career continues to meet all her needs.

What did you do before finding Barefoot Writer and freelancing?

Melynda has always
had a love of words
and books.

My older sister has lived a freelance life for the past 17 years, so I had looked over her shoulder a little and saw how it gave her opportunities to travel extensively and live anywhere she wanted, including Ecuador. Then in 2017, we had just had baby number four, and an opportunity came up to buy a house for the first time. I live in the DC metro area, so when a house comes onto the market that fits your needs, you jump on it. So I’d had a whirlwind two months of having a baby, buying a house, and moving my four children under the age of 6, and was feeling a little bit like my cup was overflowing. I also had a mortgage for the first time and was sort of wondering how this was going to work.

But also it was a time where I felt like I needed something super flexible. Because I had pockets of time, just not traditional pockets of time. If they required me to also be showered and physically present in an alternate location, that would have been challenging. My sister Jen is the one who said, “Why don’t you give freelancing a try?”

I completely relate to the juggle of four kids and the gift of flexibility! How did this lead to copyediting?

I started copyediting for The Professional Writers’ Alliance, and I will say it is a wonderful resource for anyone in the freelance writing world. Then COVID happened, and that shifted things for a lot of people. Through local connections here I knew the editor of a science and technology journal, and he was looking for someone to do research and fact checking. I thought, I can do this. So I applied for it and they were publishing a lot because they were looking at how technology was playing a role in tracking COVID and different responses to COVID.

I had been thinking about going back to graduate school, and then this opportunity came up and I decided to take the right-hand turn and lean into it.

Did you consider going into copywriting or are you solely focused on copyediting?

Having kids at home, I find it more comfortable to sit down and look at anything that’s already on the page versus the blank page. I realized at a certain point that content creation, as much as I enjoy it, required a different commitment from me. I also can give a little bit more direction to my hours, because I know how long it takes me to edit certain things. And I’m just much slower at writing. I felt like I could use my time a little bit more strategically.

How do you find balance with a busy family life and a growing career?

By treating personal appointments as commitments. There have been times where I’ve looked at a week and said, “Man, I’d love to take on this project, but I’ve already committed that Friday as the day I’m going to get my hair cut and shop for shoes for myself.” So I tell the client, “I already have commitments this week. I can do this project, but can I extend the deadline?”

I find that’s helpful in balancing to ask, “Is this deadline flexible?” And then asking myself, When am I taking care of my body? My mind? My household? And treating those as firm commitments.

I don’t know that there’s ever been a time that I’ve turned a project down and then later thought, Oh man, I had time. So I’ve learned to trust my instincts.

If you were talking to someone brand new to the world of copyediting, how would you advise them to find clients?

Talk to the people who are already around you. All of my initial clients were people that I already knew personally, who then referred me to others. But it started in those initial conversations of, “Hey, I know you and I know what you’re working on, and I can help you.”

Melynda's Living The Writer's Life story was originally published in Barefoot Writer. To learn more about how you can start living your dream writer's life too, click here.

What help do you need to move forward with your version of the writer’s life? Let us know in the comments below so we can help guide you in the right direction.