Seamless Self-Editing—Part III

Let’s get our manuscript “publish-ready.” Refer to last month’s post for my definition. This time, we’ll look at basic proofreading. Spell check in Microsoft Word or whatever word processing program you use—is simply not good enough. Click To Tweet. #amwriting #publishready #selfediting

Catching Typos

Use spell-check, but don’t rely on it: heals vs. heels, etc.

Read it out loud: our eyes skip over things too quickly. When we read it aloud, we slow down, reading every word.

Print it out: Even though a computer simulates the printed page quite well, there’s just something about actually seeing it on real paper.

Proofread backward: I’ve never tried this, but it sounds interesting.

Catching Inconsistencies

Chapter Titles and Numbers: Especially when adding or deleting chapter, make sure they’re in proper order. Use your search or find function on your word processor.

Paragraph Indents: Generally, most manuscripts ask for a half-inch indent. When you end a scene with either a # (hashtag) or * (asterisk), make sure you’ve taken out the indent for that paragraph alone.

Hyphens, dashes, and ellipses: I always consult a grammar website or the text listed here. Here are a few pointers to help you discern. An ellipses (…) is used for fragmented speech, i.e. confusion, insecurity, or uncertainty. An em dash (—) is for a break in thought or interruption. An en dash (–) is used for consecutive numbers such as 1–10.

Apostrophes and quotation marks: usually font-controlled. Any fonts associated with old typewriter styles usually has the straight marks, such as “ when most publishers would like them curved, like “. One note: if you’re using an em dash at the end of dialogue, put the end quotes in first or it will look like this: “Hello. Are you––“ Quotation marks are backwards. “Hello. Are you––”

If we learn to catch these simple things ourselves, the overall appearance of our manuscript will improve, and give us a better chance. Click To Tweet#amwriting #selfediting

How about you? What proofreading secret has helped you the most? Leave a comment and let me know.