A Bit More Wrok/cros out/work – Proofreading!!
Several times in my life I have been employed (well paid, even) to proofread written works. I always found mistakes. There are always mistakes – first time, second time, third time. Errors and flip-flops and double-ups and spoonerisms – always sthere. A promise.
Now I do my own proofreading. Should be simple. Wrong!! I’m [sort of] happy with all the editing phases and stages I go through (that’s a big sort of), but when it comes to proofreading, I need the ‘book’ version, not just a print-out to be able to see the worst of the errors, and I need some distance (that’s time away from the project) and a ‘different’ place to do the reading. Are there still mistakes? Yes. Very definitive answer. So many I’m almost ashamed to think of calling myself a professional proofreader,. I was. When I did it for other writers.
If I have to do my own proofreading, I have to remember the biggest rule of all – a person can’t proofread their own work, because they will always read what they think is there. It’s the human condition – our mind puts in the things it thinks is expected, and that’s what happens. If there isn’t enough time or distance or difference in approach, the brain fills in the bits for us – to save us stress, work, disappointment. It wants us to be happy, to live long and prosper (where have I heard that before?) and to sail through [stressful seas without a paddle] life without too many cares or woes or problems.
Our own brain hides the bad stuff from us. BUT . . . it has a limited span to be able to remember these things (no matter how well we think we know the thing) and if we step back far enough, allow time and other projects to move into top spot in the brain’s list of ‘important’ stuff, then we can fairly safely return to the task. Right?
Wrong. If you [or I] do that, we will miss things, skip things, misread. Why? Because we’re inclined to be a bit lazy, that’s why. We want it to be right, to be complete, to be the best it can be. It won’t ever be that, but we don’t want to do really silly, time-wasting things like: read it aloud [to hear how it doesn’t work] or read it backwards [for crying out loud, how do you get ‘meaning’?] or give it to someone who [doesn’t like us or our style of writing] knows what they’re doing.
The biggest problem [for me] is that I don’t have a choice but to do my own proofreading. If it give it to someone else, I have to pay them. From the coffers that have dust and spiderwebs in profusion and no coins. From an income that doesn’t exist.
The dilemma: if I don’t get someone else to look at the owrds, I won’t be able to sell many [if any] and I won’t earn any money. Understand? No money to pay to get a good product that will earn me money. round and round and round.
Solution: For cyring out loud – give it to someone to read; look away for a long enough time; put two or three projects between now and the proofread; get a proofcopy a Lllllooooonnnnnngggg time before it’s due for realease.
And stop to smell to roses occasionally. Not a rose? – well, a rose by any other name . . . .
