Lisa Rigdon

Writing and editing have been my passion for the past decade, because these activities let me help people achieve their goals. I have been fortunate to work for a diverse blend of clients and employers, and I have participated in some unique projects. Allow me to explain.

During the earlier part of my career, I worked for Remilon, an educational company that created step-by-step vocational road maps. Writing road maps for traditional careers was easy, but the more obscure careers required in-depth research, including reviewing government websites, trade organizations, and university catalogs.

Working for Remilon inspired me to pursue a nonfiction writing opportunity with the Atlantic Publishing Company. I was hired to complete a book project all about vocational planning. It wasn’t long before I had researched and written the book, How to Change Your Career and Do the Work You Really Love: A Step-by-Step Plan for Making It Happen.

After the book project, I continued to work for educational companies, but then I expanded into educational services and human resources organizations. Most of the writing I did for these groups was general marketing, but I still did some technical writing projects, including training manuals, FAQs, reports, and evaluations.

About a year ago, my technical writing skills got a major boost when I went through training to become a quality process writer. I learned about the value in creating standard operating procedures and how to get employees to take ownership of those documents. I got to interview subject matter experts as I researched a wide variety of manufacturing and janitorial tasks. After I conducted research, I wrote more than 25 standard operating procedures, and I updated 20 others. While I was going through training, I also received yellow belt-level certification in Lean Six Sigma.

I have also had the opportunity to work as a technical editor for several clients. I would say there are two sides of editing, including editing for flow and editing for grammar. Flow refers to style, voice, organization, and continuity. If the flow is bad, fixing the grammar is not going to help. Since I have a writer’s background, I know how to talk to other writers about their work in a way that is constructive, informative, and respectful. I also understand that feedback is a two-way street, so I do my best to listen and remain open-minded.

Throughout my entire career as a content specialist, I have also become a published urban fantasy author, publishing under the name L. Rigdon. For those unfamiliar with the genre, urban fantasy includes stories with fantastical and magical elements within an urban setting. For example, Harry Potter, The Dresden Files, and the Percy Jackson series. Since 2014, I have published six works, including four collections of short stories and two novels. I have another collection of short stories due to be published in December 2019.