Friday's Links to Writing & Marketing Blog Posts

PROOFREADING YOUR OWN WORK: OVERCOMING ‘AUTOCORRECT’

By: Alison Qigley (appearing on Belinda Pollard’s blog)

You’ve written the story of a lifetime. It’s going to win the next Bridport. Champagne corks will pop; relatives will phone.

The sense of euphoria from a job well done lasts till the next morning, when you read what you submitted the day before and notice a big fat copy error. Somehow, a crucial noun in your opening paragraph isn’t there, and without it the sentence makes no sense.

The frustrating thing about this fiasco isn’t that you were careless, but that you made this mistake despite hours of careful proofreading.

Perhaps you’ll berate yourself for being stupid, but before you go too far with self-criticism, take a moment to reflect on the complexities of proofing. To some extent we all suffer proofing ‘blind spots.’ Even the most accomplished authors struggle to proof their own work.

So why is it so hard to be a perfect proofreader? Does it owe to simple lapses in concentration or is there something more fundamental going on here – something to do with the way our brains are wired to read?

The things writers talk about over lunch

Questions like these come to my attention when I’m dining in a cafe overlooking a car park on the Sunshine Coast. It’s a warm June day, and I am here with Steve Reilly, an award-winning short story writer who has been judging a local writing competition for the Sunshine Coast Literary Association.

As we tuck into our omelettes, the topic turns to proofing. “I’ve got to confess,” Steve says, “that I’m not one of those writers who can do one single edit, checking everything at one read over. I have to edit for one thing – then move on to the next. So I have a hit list of things to look for.”

I’ve seen his work and I’ve been impressed by his clean copy, so I ask him if there are any proofreading tricks he might want to share.

The usual suspects

At first Steve pulls no surprises. “There’s no point proofreading something that will have to be removed later on. Get rid of the big errors before you fix the smaller ones.”

. . .

Read the full article HERE!

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If you missed my writing & marketing tweets and retweets yesterday, here they are again:

1. Proofreading our own work: Overcoming ‘autocorrect’ | @Belinda_Pollard http://ow.ly/IxHUt
2. Should Authors and Publishers Spy on Readers? | Digital Book World http://ow.ly/IxZsp
3. Fiction University: Balancing the Number Characters and the Scale of Your World http://ow.ly/Iy4BX
4. How to turn a short story into a novel | Nail Your Novel http://ow.ly/Iy4Ua
5. Authorgraph – Sign eBooks for your Readers! | Indies Unlimited http://ow.ly/Iy55A
6. 6 Lessons Learned Between Books 4 & 5 | Molly Greene: Writer http://ow.ly/Iy5g6
7. Interview with Author Lindsay Buroker http://ow.ly/Iy5BP She’s a powerhouse of information that no author should be without.
8. How To Beat The Fear Of Self-Publishing | Molly Greene: Writer http://ow.ly/Iy62B
9. 15 Step Guideline To Create Your 2015 Digital Marketing Strategy http://ow.ly/Iy6wi
10. 25 Signs You are Already Successful and You're Simply Unaware http://ow.ly/Iy7ae
11. Creating An Author Business Plan: Setting Your Goals - Marcy Kennedy http://ow.ly/IylBZ
12. Janet Reid, Literary Agent: Query Question: Query POV http://ow.ly/IylMA
13. Give Me 3 Minutes and I’ll Give You a Better (and Darker) Backstory - Helping Writers Become Authors http://ow.ly/IylUy
14. Why Managers And Employees Have Wildly Different Ideas About Work-Life Balance | Fast Company | business + innovation http://ow.ly/Iymq8
15. Julie Musil, Author: Insecure About Queries? #IWSG http://ow.ly/IymF4
16. Changing Your Paradigm About Your Author Platform! http://ow.ly/Iyn4y
17. 10 Sites You Need To Create Awesome Author Stuff! http://ow.ly/IyndG
18. Top 3 Writing and Marketing Tips for Any Author http://ow.ly/IynMD
19. The Most Highlighted Passages in Montlake Romance Titles | GalleyCat http://ow.ly/IyqOl
20. The Business of Screenwriting: The Birth, Life and Death of a Movie (Part 1) | Go Into The Story http://ow.ly/IyrRj
21. How To Stage A Comeback | Molly Greene: Writer http://ow.ly/Iysg6
22. Why you should Connect YouTube and Twitter http://ow.ly/IyuGR
23. The 3 Most Important Things Blogging Taught Me | Creative Writing with the Crimson League http://ow.ly/Iyv0S

Happy writing and running, Kathy