About

Writing and editing are two different

perspectives of a similar creative, delightful process.

(Paula Arellano Geoffroy 2021)

A couple of years ago on the east coast of Northern Ireland. I love to travel.

“Writing is hard work. A clear sentence is no accident. Very few sentences come out right the first time, or even the third time. Remember this in moments of despair. If you find that writing is hard, it’s because it is hard.”

(William Zinsser 2016)

Paula Arellano Geoffroy

I’ve always loved to write. At school I kept diaries and at university I filled notebooks with thoughts, stories, and even scenes of an imagined novel.

As a child, I attended an English school in Santiago until I turned eighteen and entered university. After university, I moved from Chile to Venezuela, and later from Venezuela to the Netherlands. I was living in Venezuela twenty years ago when I began studying creative writing at Escuela de Escritores, Madrid, and I was living in the Netherlands when I began studying professional writing and editing at the University of California, Berkeley. During all my travels, though, I never stopped writing and reading in English.

I studied forest engineering at Universidad de Chile. I fell in love with trees, forests, wildlife, ecosystems, and the environment of this beloved Earth, but I also discovered an intimate passion while working on my thesis: the excitement of researching and writing the manuscript. I even remember thinking how wonderful it would be to make a career out of writing.

Life is surprising, isn’t it? But perhaps not so surprising when you are clear about what you want. And I really wanted to write. I wanted to write well. In Spanish of course, but mostly in English, the language I’ve loved since my early days at school. So I studied, read, and wrote everyday for many years. Until I discovered I not only wanted to write, but also to help others communicate by editing their texts.

I created Happy Words as my digital home. The phrase is a satisfying expression to describe the outcome of my work; the website is the perfect place to show it. I do what I love and I love what I do.

Education

2020 – 2021
University of California, Berkeley
Professional Sequence in Editing
None
2017 – 2019
University of California, Berkeley
Specialized Program in Professional Writing
None
2012 – 2015
Escuela de Escritores, Madrid
Itinerary to Be a Novelist
None
1991 – 1996
Universidad de Chile
Bachelor of Science in Forest Engineering

Courses

  • University of California Berkeley Extension
    • 2021 Advanced Editorial Workshop: Substantive Editing
    • 2021 Editorial Workshop II: Intermediate Copyediting
    • 2021 Editorial Workshop I: Introduction to Copyediting
    • 2020 Grammar, Mechanics, and Usage for Editors
    • 2019 Public Relations Writing
    • 2019 Fundamentals of Freelancing   
    • 2018 Writing for Social Media
    • 2018 Writing Skills Workshop
    • 2018 Effective Writing in the Workplace
    • 2017 Creative Nonfiction Workshop
    • 2017 Technical Communication II
    • 2016 Technical Writing
  • Escuela de Escritores Madrid
    • 2015 To Finish Your Novel 
    • 2014 Development of the Novel
    • 2013 Plan and Method of the Novel
    • 2013 Narrative and Technique of the Novel
    • 2013 Genre Literature
    • 2013 Writing with the Classics
    • 2012 The Joy of Writing
    • 2011 Writing Short Stories
    • 2010 Creative Writing C
    • 2009 Creative Writing B
    • 2009 Creative Writing A

University of California Berkeley
Professional Sequence in Editing
University of California Berkeley
The Science of Happiness

Sample of Past Projects

  • Articles (nonfiction digital)
  • Paper vs Digital
  • Is It Possible to Still Publish Epic Novels?
  • Creative Nonfiction Still Popular?
  • What Do Writers Read?
  • My Most Anticipated Reads for 2018
  • Why I Read the Laureates
  • Financial reports
  • Cash flow reports
  • Insurance reports
  • Purchasing reports
  • SAP purchasing tool manual
  • Operational procedures
  • Technical procedures
  • Efficiency reports
  • Visitors’ house brochures
  • Nursery inventory reports

  • Short stories (fiction paper)
  • 2016 Reader’s Digest
  • 2015 Ámsterdam
  • 2014 Elevar cometas
  • 2013 Té para dos
  • 2011 Despedida
  • 2010 Nieve

  • Spanish – English translation services

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