Is Proofreading Important?

 

I cannot stress the importance of proofreading your edited and revised drafts. It's the final step before you submit to a publisher, whether a book or a short piece. I am going to be on the road today, so here is a repeat post with a bit of updated info regarding proofreading. 

Every writer knows that proofreading is important. Very few would dispute that. Just as important is the way in which you proofread. A quick glance over the piece is not going to give you the type of end product that you want--or that editors will deem acceptable. 

Editing and proofreading are companions. Do one, then the other. 

There are many parts to proofreading, lots of Do This or Don't Do This. I have listed some of those you should do below:

DO set your draft aside for a while before you begin. How long? I'd say a minimum of overnight, maybe even a few days. Don't wait 15 minutes after you write the final words of the draft and then start proofreading. Your mind is still into what you wrote in the draft; it's not ready to look for ways to improve it yet.

DO read aloud at least once in your proofreading process. Trouble spots you might pass over while reading silently will become easier to spot. Things like sentences that are too long, an overabundance of adjectives or adverbs, poor subject/verb tense, and more.

DO check punctuation. Some writers go through the entire piece checking only commas or quote marks. You'd be surprised how often writers miss putting in commas where needed or quote marks on only one end of the quote. 

DO look for repetition of words and ideas. It's all too easy to repeat as we write. It's one thing you'll catch if you read aloud.

DO look at verbs. Are there too many passive verbs? See how many you can change to be active. Active verbs always make for more interesting reading.

DO check to see that your pronouns are clear as to who or what they are referring to. I often mark this problem in the work of others that I critique. The writer knows who or what, but the reader needs to have clarity. 

DO Check each paragraph to make sure it shows a single point. Mixing more than one thought for a paragraph is confusing. Make sure that each person speaking in a dialogue begins a new paragraph, even if all they say is "Sure." 

DO a spell check and check for words that are used too often, like 'was' or 'it' or 'that' with the tools given with your word processing program.

Do check for overly-long sentences. If a sentence goes on and on, the reader will easily lose the important thought in it. 

DO check for sentence fragments. Complete sentences are what we strive for, even though an occasional fragment works in what we're writing. Only occasionally, however.

DO check verb tenses. Don't bounce them around. Be consistent.

DO show more than tell. Your piece will be far more interesting if you do this.

DO check the dialogue sections carefully. Eliminate adverbs in the tags. Check the punctuation and quote marks carefully in dialogue.

DO be consistent with capitalizations with names and specific places. I often see a story I'm critiquing that uses caps in some places and not in others for the same word.

DO look for varying lengths of sentences. Mix up the long ones with the shorter. 

The list above is not complete, but it can help in checking what you want to proofread and how. 

Should you proofread more than once? I think it would be beneficial to do it at least twice or three times with time left between proofreading sessions. If you do two sessions back to back, you're very likely to miss the same mistakes. After you edit, do a final proofread session. It's your last chance to make your submission as good as it can be.

Making Your Writing Clear For Your Reader

A giant wind came roaring through around 5 this morning. It blew ferociously enough to wake me from a sound sleep. No going back to dreamland again, so I lay there listening to the strong wind that gusted with such intensity that I feared the same fate as two of the Three Little Pigs. Was the big, bad wolf outside our door? Or was it just Mother Nature letting us know that, even though we are having warm temps this week, we have to pay for it somehow. Now, hours later, the wind continues to blow steadily with occasional huge gusts.

While I lay awake early today listening to the wind, I started thinking about a poem that I had critiqued for a writer friend yesterday. While I loved some of the images in the poem, I found that I really had no understanding of what it was all about. Later, she wrote to thank me for the crit and told me a bit more about where she wrote the poem and what prompted it. Suddenly, it all became much clearer.

Writers of poetry, fiction, memoir and more often have trouble getting things across to the reader. The person writing is fully aware of what happened, where it happened, what the people looked like and how they acted. It's all in their mind and it's perfect. But--and it's a big 'but'--it's not always easy to write the scene so that the reader sees it completely the same.

When I write a memoir piece, I know the people well. I know the background of the characters and the situation. I try to make sure what I've written helps the reader to be able to see much of what I know. I don't always succeed so I try to read through a reader's eye when I do the editing.

Having my work critiqued by others helps with this problem of the writer not clarifying enough for the reader. If the person doing the crit is left with a "Huh?" then something needs to be done. It's not easy to do without adding way too much to what you've written. You need to clarify as much as you can by writing as little as you can to add to what your original piece is. Easy? Not at all.

The best advice I can give writers to correct this problem is to let the piece sit for several days. Then, read it trying to put yourself in your reader's mode. Look for areas that take too much for granted, places where you need to add it little to let the reader know more.  Another thing to do is to rely on help from others who will critique the piece for you. They'll catch this problem and maybe others, too.

A Special Treat

In the picture above, our two youngest grandchildren are making delectable fresh strawberries even better by dipping them into melted chocolate. Cole loves strawberries, but he adores them coated in chocolate. He and Jordan did a good job on this special treat that we all enjoyed.

You might consider making something you've written even more special--coat it in delightful chocolate prose. Make good writing better by adding more to it. 

I've said it before and I'll say it here and probably again in a couple of weeks--let your finished work sit idle for a few days. Read it again and you may realize it's not so finished, after all. Your perception changes when you haven't been working with the piece for a few days. 

Look for places where you can add something more, something that will make your story or essay better than the first time around. What can you add to create a special treat for readers? Make a checklist with things like flow, adjectives, sensory detail, sentence structure and anything else you can think of. Do you meet your standards for each one? Can you enhance the ones that you thought were OK? If you feel OK about a story, maybe that's how an editor will also feel, but if you are truly proud of your work, it may have a better chance of being accepted for publication. 

Strawberries are good, but chocolate dipped strawberries are even better for she who loves chocolate like I do. Make your writing the same kind of treat.

A Passion For Reading

The greatest gift is the passion for reading.
It is cheap, it consoles, it distracts, it excites, it gives you
knowledge of the world and experience of a wide kind.
It is moral illumination.
(Elizabeth Hardwick, 1989)

Elizabeth Hardwick was an editor, writer, critic and co-founder of the New York Review of Books. Who better to have made the comment above? I am in full agreement of her assessment of reading, and mostly the passion for reading that is within the quote.

To be a real reader, you must be passionate about it. None of this reading a book once a year and an occasional glance at a newspaper or magazine. If you’re passionate about reading, never a day goes by that you don’t read something. To me, reading is nourishment for the soul.

And like any recipe, reading requires more than one ingredient. No one would read without writers, editors, and publishers. They bring us the words that fill us with knowledge and/or entertain us. Some of us will never be more than a reader, but others who work in the writing world reap double benefits. Not only can they pursue a passion for reading, but they can offer reading material to the world.

I read two newspapers a day, sometimes three since my husband recently subscribed to the Wall St. Journal. I am always in the process of reading a book. When one is finished, there is another waiting for me. I also enjoy reading magazines. Do I read every single word? In a book, more often than not, I do. The newspapers and magazines I read the parts that appeal most to me, which is usually a good share.

I believe Ms. Hardwick and I would have gotten along quite well as we are of the same mind when it comes to the passion for reading. I’ve heard people comment that they don’t have time to read books, magazines and newspapers. They do have time to spend endless hours in front of a TV or a computer or an electronic game. It’s not they don’t have time, rather that they don’t take time to read. Maybe you need that passion for reading before you make it a priority.