I got soooo ticked off the other day.
I want to finish proofing/editing my first book so I can:
- make it into an e-book
- try a publisher
- sell it through my website
- throw it in the garbage
So I’m going through it ONE LAST TIME, and I keep coming across all these ; ‘s and — and … and overusing first names in conversation.
And THIS is one reason why you shouldn’t be the only editor of your publication.
I will cover this in my series “How To Write That Book”, but being as ticked off as I am I need to share this life lesson NOW.
You can be as meticulous as you can be; you can read and reread and spell check and go through each sentence 10,000 times and you will still miss something that an outsider would see.
This has happened to me throughout my writing career. That’s why I don’t hit “send” or “publish” right away.
You never know what will pop up.
Most of us cannot afford an editor to look over our book/magazine article/term paper. If you CAN spend a few bucks on any part of your writing, this is where to spend it.
If you just can’t, and still want/need/should look professional, have someone else read your paper for grammar, punctuation, and repetitiveness. They don’t have to get into the “flow” of the story (although that helps, too).
But an outside eye can catch things your mind cannot.
To prove my point, this came through on my Facebook feed yesterday:
Now. What did you just read?
Maybe you read it right the first time. Most likely you did not.
Neither will your readers.
If you edit your own pages, no matter what they are, either read them out loud, take note of punctuation, sentence structure, think of how people speak. We write faster than we think — we also read faster than we think.
Hope you got a chuckle out of my post.
Thank goodness it was proofread first.
Humoring the Goddess 
Why not, my friend? Life’s too short not to!
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Just go for it girl !!!
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So glad to hear he’s shared his work! I know how hard that is to do. I am always afraid to share. I don’t know why. But every time I do I get good feedback, including catching mistakes I couldn’t see for the life of me. And I’m waiting for your photography book, too!
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SO very true! It’s hard to be objective with our own work. And spellcheck is not always our friend. Ha….
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https://thatmomentintime-crissouli.blogspot.com/2019/08/friday-fossicking-2nd-august-2019.html
Thank you, Chris
We all need editors, especialy if you rely on awful connect to do it for you, you never know what you write.
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My husband always asks me to proofread first as he is dislectic, then he corrects it all, then he gives a copy to a few friends/relatives who are a lot younger than us (our spelling changed several times since we were is school :D)and who use written Flemish daily at work. Good luck to you my friend !!
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good point; those certainly require a careful edit or two.
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Thanks.
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Me too, I have a friend who will nearly flog me online to go back and edit.
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I do the same when it comes to blogs or tweets. But you can’t correct mistakes once you send something off to be published in a magazine or as an ebook or regular book or for a contest. Those are the ones you have to wait and reread!
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Keep on writing, my friend!
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You sure got me, in fact, this is just me, thank you for this wonderful article. I am surely working on myself especially with the help of Grammarly. Thanks.
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I write my blog, hit publish, my wife reads it, and tells me what needs to be fixed. Not the best way to do editing, but I can’t wait to hit Publish…
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