Comments on: Here is a Method that is Helping Writers Find Mistakes in Their Work

By: Talking to Myself |

Talking to Myself | — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 19:44:38 +0000

[...] In this great short piece, she reinforces the opinions of her colleague Jennifer Blanchard of Procrastinating Writers. Both believe that all writers should read their work aloud or have someone else read it to [...]

By: jennifer blanchard

jennifer blanchard — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 19:08:08 +0000

@Cathryn Reading your fiction out loud–even 300 pages of it–will definitely be worth your time!

@Natalia Reading backwards–wow! Never thought of that one, but you’re right; it’s a great way to catch errors since you’re forcing yourself to concentrate on every word.

By: jennifer blanchard

jennifer blanchard — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 19:06:09 +0000

@Larry I was more than happy to help! Your blog–and now your eBook–has changed my life. Before your blog/eBook, I had a certain “attitude” about traditional publishing and was hell-bent on self-publishing as a way to avoid all the BS that goes along with traditional publishing (rejections, rejections, rejections…did I mention rejections? years spent trying to find the right home for your book, time lost by waiting, etc).

But now I realize my “attitude” was more surrounding my fear of rejection and fear of never getting published (aka: not being good enough) than it was about all the hoop-jumping.

I’m still a fan of self-publishing (for those who do it properly)–but I have a new attitude regarding publishing in general.

No longer am I afraid that the world will reject my novel. Now that I know what I didn’t know (hello story structure!), I feel confident that my first novel will not only receive critical aclaim, but it will also be the jumping-off point to my successful fiction career.

All it took was a few hours and 127 pages. (If you haven’t read Story Structure–Demystified, read it NOW!)

By: Larry

Larry — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 18:55:47 +0000

I’d like to tell your readers here about the gift you (Jennifer, who host’s this site) gave me. When I published my new ebook a couple of weeks ago, I sent Jennifer the book (as peers tend to do). Not only was she very gracious in reviewing it here, she also took the unsolicited time to carefully go through the book and locate an entire list of typos in the beta version I’d sent. This was huge, and most appreciated. Two other beta readers did the same, too.

So by all means, when you see a typo in a blog (especially, because the author can quickly fix it, unlike a book or published article), tell the author about it.

Quick story: one reader of my ebook wrote me to alert me to the fact that the whiskey I’d referenced in the text as “Jack Daniels” was actually, correctly, to be written as “Jack Daniel’s” (possessive with apostrophy). I googled it and flickred it, and darned if he wasn’t correct. The guy the booze is named after was Jack Daniel, no ‘s’. Who knew.

As someone who is famous for typos (probably some here, too), despite my best proofing efforts, I love it when I get a little help from my friends.

By: Natalia Maldonado

Natalia Maldonado — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 05:07:53 +0000

This is so true. I read all my work out loud, and what I’ve found most helpful is printing it, moving away from my desk and reading it out loud as I pace the room. I don’t know why it works, but it does, though I only do it occasionally since I’d feel guilty printing out every piece of writing I do. Reading it backwards helps to catch spelling typos, since it helps you focus on just the words.

Will have to look into that iReadFast program, Molly!

By: Cathryn

Cathryn — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:28:56 +0000

I love seeing this today! I’m finishing my final re-write/edit next week and then have set aside about 4-6 weeks for reading aloud.

I’ve learned this with short stories. You think a piece is smooth and well polished and you read it out loud and my how the clunkers, repetitious wording, etc. explode in your face.

Thanks for the reminder that reading aloud 300-odd pages will be worth the investment!

By: Allison

Allison — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 18:59:09 +0000

This is so true! Reading aloud is the only way to catch some of these mistakes, and it lets you know if something just doesn’t sound right. If you’ve been doing a lot of revising to a piece, this is the best way to catch those little stray words that your delete key sometimes misses.

Great post!

By: jblan

jblan — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 17:41:31 +0000

@Trina I try to read my writing out loud as often as possible. But I, too, admit that when I’m in a hurry I sometimes forget.

By: jblan

jblan — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 17:40:15 +0000

@Molly Thanks for the link! I wonder if they have anything similar for PCs?

By: Molly

Molly — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 17:14:09 +0000

I like reading aloud, but another method that I have found is some freeware for Mac called iReadFast. It flashes each word of your text in a little box at whatever speed you choose, which helps a writer like me who can sometimes see sentences as one whole, minus any mistakes or errors. I have also seen this REALLY work for trying to stay with one tense. Reading your document word by word really magnifies any problems. The download url is http://mac.sofotex.com/download-136072.html.
Hope this helps somebody else!