Editing
Unless you are a teenager, I charge a nice and neat $2/page for editing services (for teenage writers, it’s $1/page). A page = a double-spaced, one-inch margins, 12-point font page of writing. If you are interested in talking with me about an editing project, please contact me at nh @ nataliehart dot com.
I have been a freelance editor for 25 years. Before going freelance, I worked on the proofreading and editorial side of publishing in Grand Rapids, MI and for St. Martin’s Press and Addison, Wesley, Longman in New York City. While I can line edit just fine, I’m at my best when development editing, helping writers develop the flow and the argument of nonfiction, and the worldbuilding and characterization of their fiction.
“I especially want to thank Natalie Hart for her excellent copyediting and probing questions–on both editions of Growing Strong Daughters.”
Lisa Graham McMinn, Growing Strong Daughters, Revised Edition, Baker Books (Grand Rapids, MI: 2007), Acknowledgments.
The above is an unusual thing: a named thank-you to a freelance editor working for a traditional publisher. Unusual both because many published authors don’t appreciate my probing questions (but unpublished authors appreciate that someone is taking them seriously as an artist and a thinker), and because freelancers usually toil thanklessly in the dark.
Writing
I write web copy, newsletters, articles, blog posts–if it has words, I will happily weave them for you. My absolute favorite thing is to write profiles of people. To speak with someone about what they’re most passionate about in their life is a joy. Please contact me at nh @ nataliehart dot com.
Cornerstone University 2023 Alumni Journal: Kate Kondor, The Language of Obedience — I got to speak with a woman who served for many years in Ukraine, and is now in Hungary. One of my favorite parts of our conversation didn’t make the article: I asked her what were the places she missed in Kiev. Her voice got thick with emotion as she detailed beautiful places she loved. They were likely destroyed in the current war, but we didn’t go there; she said she was grateful for a chance to talk about them. I will remember to ask people more questions about places they love.
Cornerstone University Magazine and Annual Report: Internships Are More than a Job and More than Classroom Learning — I got to be inspired by talking with energetic young people and I got the cover story 🙂
Grand Rapids Association of Pastors – I am the administrative assistant for this organization of pastors from across denominational and racial and ethnic lines. This article is about the last meeting of the 2016/2017 season: Listening and Praying.
This article on myths about immigration is a good example of my informational writing: Busting Myths and Leaning Into Local Issues About Immigration.
OneFaithManyFaces.org – I wrote many of the church profiles (the ones for Ideal Park and Moline are my favorites), and they repost my early content from this blog. The Thanksgiving post I wrote for them may be one of the best things I’ve written: “Thanksgiving is a great big but.”
“Gospel-Centered Renewal: The Philadelphia Story,” The Banner, March, 2011.
Urban Church Leadership Center I was the editor of and a frequent writer for a now-ended online journal of the Urban Church Leadership Center, a professional education and support center for urban pastors in Grand Rapids, Michigan. I was able to download my articles before they shut down the journal. A few of my favorites:
Profiles of individuals:
Thank You, Dr. Mariano Avila
Profiles of programs:
What Happens When You Take Away the Title_
When the Needs Are Deep, the Vision Gets Deeper
Articles about leadership:
The Simplest Consensus-Building Tool Ever: The Five-Finger Vote
Guest posts for other blogs:
“with all his might,” a guest post about my ribbon-stick dancing group for Suzanna Paul, of The Smitten Word.
“Salvaged goods,” in catapult*magazine, Vol.13 No.15, about my mother saving her mother’s ratty house shoes from a fire.
Big City Sidewalk, a guest post at You Are Here Stories, about growing up in a big city and my complex relationship to the sidewalk.
Please call me at 616-514-4033
Hello Natalie, a blast from the past, still serving God, and doing His will. I have some work for you and wondering if you are still doing editing? If so would you call me on my cell phone at 616-514-4033.