Proofing Stories

[32aa]

How do you proof your stories? Up until a few months ago, i would re-read... and re-read again... set it aside for a few days and re-read again. Each time i would catch something: a wrong word, a punctuation error, missing word, until finally, i would just say 'screw it ' and submit for publication, and then find more stuff.

Then i found a free software called "Grammarly". Wow, what a difference. The first time i used it on a 10,000 word story that i thought i was done with, it found over 200 'things' that then were underlined in red. It even found sentences that it recommended and gave an example to 're-word' to make it more readable.

So, i was just wondering... what do other authors use?

 

[TarnishedPenny]

I’ve given up proofreading. I just publish and a horde of readers will find - and point out - every last error.

No. OK, I read and reread a story a few times, then change the font and do it again. Surprisingly, that works, too.

I’ll then read it aloud.

One last quiet read and it’s good.

 

[ElectricBlue]

I always change the font size and colour each time I proof check, then run it through the spell check. I'll run it through a word cloud to identify the most used 100 words, to find repetition, then use "find" to locate the offenders. I tried grammarly once - it might be okay for business writing, but didn't help me much for fiction.

Typos always get through though, I often find one or two once a story has been published, but at that point, I don't bother doing a fix.

 

[AwkwardlySet]

I read the story twice and I catch what I catch and then publish. It should be enough for this level of website to be completely honest. A few errors can slip through yeah, but investing a considerable amount of time to reread many times, to hear it vocalized etc. just to not let an error or two slip through, is bad time management in my book. Now if you are writing for the market and publishing it seriously, then yeah, it is unprofessional to let silly mistakes slip.

 

[ecorche]

Grammarly is a great tool. Reading aloud also helps, but only goes so far if the author is the one doing the reading.
I don't use Windows, but Mac has text-to-speech built into it. The voice is synthetic, but once you train your ear, it's easy to hear it mispronounce all your typos. I find it helps to turn off my monitor when I do this, just to eliminate visual bias.
Having written for years, I've learned my common mistakes, and can fix many of them with a simple search.
As AwkwardlySet already mentioned, for this site, the bar seems to be pretty low. I've personally read several stories that defecate all over spelling and grammar rules yet still score 4.6 or more. Let's face it, if you're in the middle of milking your lizard or paddling your puddle, a couple typos won't matter.

 

[stickygirl]

I sometimes use the Accessibility option on my Mac that'll read the selected text back to me. I can choose either a male of female voice but they have such boring voices it's sometimes difficult to stay focused! Anyhow, hearing it often helps pick up errors. There's always going to be a few that get through. Life.

 

[yukonnights]

Having someone else read the story has proven to be the best for me. I have a couple of reliable "beta readers". On my most recent story I got too anxious to run the story through another person — I paid dearly for that haste. I can't believe I really did this — but I switched the name of one of the characters about half way through the story — very embarrassing, but perhaps resulted in the kindest comment I've ever received — the person let me know I'd made the slip-up and said he still gave the story a 5 rating. Sadly, the current overall rating indicates not all reader are so kind.

Lesson learned !

 

[Trionyx]

Simply loading it as a draft onto this site and reading it here has helped me catch quite a few errors, much like changing the font as noted above. Reading it aloud helps but not with punctuation so much. Finding beta readers can be difficult, unfortunately.

 

[ecorche]

Self-Editing for Fiction Writers.
I know this thread is mostly about catching typos, but some authors might find this text useful.

 

[alohadave]

Grammarly is a great tool. Reading aloud also helps, but only goes so far if the author is the one doing the reading.
I don't use Windows, but Mac has text-to-speech built into it. The voice is synthetic, but once you train your ear, it's easy to hear it mispronounce all your typos. I find it helps to turn off my monitor when I do this, just to eliminate visual bias.
Having written for years, I've learned my common mistakes, and can fix many of them with a simple search.
As AwkwardlySet already mentioned, for this site, the bar seems to be pretty low. I've personally read several stories that defecate all over spelling and grammar rules yet still score 4.6 or more. Let's face it, if you're in the middle of milking your lizard or paddling your puddle, a couple typos won't matter.

Iphone has a text to speech option under accessibility.

Windows has an accessibility feature called Narrator, but it's more of a screen reader.

 

[Voboy]

Write it, edit as I go, read it through one time for continuity, publish.

Bob’s your uncle.

 

[vanmyers86]

I edit as I go, then ask a couple of beta readers to have their way with it unless it's a contest entry and I'm down to the wire. In those cases, I submit it and hope for the best.
Since I started writing here, I've learned to send chunks of text to my sister as I write - she has a genius for spotting typos. Wish I had known that when I started!

 

[ElectricBlue]

Write it, edit as I go, read it through one time for continuity, publish.

Bob’s your uncle.

You sure that's Bob, not Rob?

 

[Ophelia_Coque]

Grammerly. It is not much good with punctuation, but it is quite clever at spelling correcting typos.
It would be great to find something that sorts out punctuation round dialogue - I find that difficult to keep track of.
Ophelia

 

[lovecraft68]

I’ve given up proofreading. I just publish and a horde of readers will find - and point out - every last error.

No. OK, I read and reread a story a few times, then change the font and do it again. Surprisingly, that works, too.

I’ll then read it aloud.

One last quiet read and it’s good.

I don't change the font, but I've found changing background color makes it easier to see things on an additional pass.

 

[ronde]

I write and revise as I go, then let the story sit for a week or so to let my brain forget what I wanted to write so it will read what I actually wrote. A spell checker takes care of most of the typos but not all. Some you just have to find when you read the story again.

A helpful hint when writing is to turn off auto-correct on your spell checker because it will trip you up and not recognize the error when you run the story through spell check again. My old copy of Word will auto-correct "The callgirl had big titties." to "The Calgary had big tithes." My spell checker at work will auto-correct "commonise", the word meaning to make more than one product by utilizing common parts, to "communize". I can't count how many times I read, "we need to communize this bolt".

 

[Seadog777]

After I finish writing this is MY process.

Microsoft Editor.
I read it.
My wife reads it.
I read it.
My neighbor reads it.
I read it.
My sister reads it.
I read it.
Send to Laurel.

If anyone sees a problem, they inform me, and I fix it.

Nobody and no program is perfect, so things get through.