How a Writer Looks for Mistakes

I spent the weekend finishing line edits. Exciting, right? Now I’m reading the manuscript through cover to cover before I send it off to my proofread editor. Why, you might ask? Because I want it to be as clean as possible.

Here’s the thing about proof edits. They might be considered the ‘simplest’ edits but they can also be the easiest to miss. When you are reading tens of thousands of words, it’s understandable that a comma might be missed, or a quote. And don’t get me started on there vs. their, or lead vs led. As you can imagine, it’s a bleary-eyed journey. Which means the more eyes that read it the better.

The good news is even after reading it several times I still like the story! Over the course of the next few weeks, I will read the book again and again. So I’m happy I still smile and cry when I read it.

One of my beta readers told me she cried when she read the story. I told her that made me so happy – which might be a twisted response to some – but to me it means she was invested in the story and characters. That’s all a writer can ask for.