The Need for Proofreaders

When I worked as a documentation specialist, I was a pretty good editor. I learned my company's writing style and structure, and would refresh myself on it often.

When I reviewed my colleagues' content, I was able to determine if he or she was adhering to our style and to ensure that all of our writers presented a unified voice to our customers. Someone who followed our manuals would not be able to pick out one writer from another. This was especially important when we had more than one writer working on a single document: it had to read as though it came from one writer.

One of the things that I liked the most about leaving my job at the end of the day and working on The Brown Knowser blog was that I could throw that professional structure away and just be myself, writing what I wanted and how I wanted to present it.

With more than 1.8 million views, to date, I'm hoping most of you enjoy visiting my blog. Though, some of you might be thinking I could use an editor, sometimes.

When I write my fiction, I find that I focus on the telling of the story, rather than focus on a particular style. In the first draft, I think it's important for me to get the ideas on the page and worry about the flow later.

While writing Dark Water, I went in a new direction when it came to my own writing style. Because the story is a murder mystery, I felt that I had to keep track of the plot and the characters; to facilitate this organization, I made spreadsheets that had character names, their backgrounds, and how they fit into the story. I also created a timeline so that when the case was solved, everything would line up.

But because I became too close to the story, I wasn't confident that I'd be able to make sense of the timeline and how everything unfolded, so I relied on others to read the story and give me their take. I wanted them to notice any holes in the flow and—most importantly—tell me if they were able to figure out the murderer or murderers before I had intended.

In the first draft of Dark Water that I thought was good enough for someone to read, I shared my files with four people: two friends who had read Songsaengnim: A Korea Diary; DW, who hasn't read any of my fiction and rarely even reads my blog; and a friend who said he loves murder mysteries and wanted to read my book.

Within a couple of days, my friend who likes crime fiction posted a comment about how he liked the second chapter more than the prologue and the first chapter, and how he could clearly see how I had based two characters on DW and myself (I did and I didn't). And then he was quiet for weeks, eventually telling me that he got busy on other things and couldn't find the time to keep reading.

DW went heavy on proofreading, suggesting I cut out huge parts of the narrative, saying that audiences wouldn't care about certain details, into which I had placed in abundance. But she also nitpicked on some of my writing style, but I asked her to just stick with the storyline and continue pointing out passages that she felt were unnecessary.

By the fourth chapter, DW got busy with work and was unable to continue working on Dark Water, even though I asked her, at this point, to simply read the book and give me her impression. She said she found it hard to do that, as she'd want to stop any time she felt she needed to provide feedback.

And so, her time with the book came to an end.

That left my friends who had read my fiction before. One added a few comments when she found a couple of inconsistencies, and was really helpful at pointing out when I had contradicted myself. I really appreciated her input and I was able to go back over the manuscript, knowing about these inconsistencies, fixing them, and then re-reading the book so that I had addressed them.

My other friend said that she was going to first read through the story, without adding any comments, and then read it a second time, adding feedback where she felt it was necessary. When she finished the book, she said she enjoyed it, had no idea who dunnit until the end, but that she couldn't commit to reading through it a second time.

Fair enough.

Both of my proofreaders who made it all the way said the same thing, that they couldn't figure out who the murderer/s was/were until it was revealed, at the end.

Another friend, who is a publisher, offered to read Dark Water when I thought it was done, but after sending it to her, she urged me to read a book that helps a writer prepare a crime novel for publication, offering structure and style recommendations to tighten it up. I read the book and realized I needed to make more changes to my manuscript, so I started another draft session.

I was halfway into my new edits when I realized that I needed to step away from my book, that I was missing things and needed to wait until I could come back to it with a fresh perspective. And I'm glad that I did.

After a four-month break, I started reading Dark Water again and I was able to see things that I hadn't noticed in all of the drafts before. You see, as good an editor I've been when it comes to reading other people's content, I'm not very good when it comes to reading my own because I'm too close to it. I could stare at a period or a spelling mistake until I'm blue in the face, and miss it.

All writers are like this. We see the faults in others' work but can't see our own.

Last week, I finished the fifth draft of Dark Water and was looking for others to read it. I found two more friends, both who had read Songsaengnim and were avid readers. And one of them, I've known since our days in journalism school and who was an editor at a few newspapers for many years.

It didn't take long for her to spot something, and it was in the third paragraph on the very first page. I had used one word three times in that paragraph. Until then, no one else had spotted it.

This is why we need proofreaders. They see what the writer doesn't see or sometimes what other readers see. A proofreader is invaluable and I am eternally grateful for their help in making my novel better.

I'm now into my sixth run-through of the book and I'll be implementing suggestions. I still have a self-imposed deadline that I plan to meet, so it's getting down to the wire with this (hopefully) final draft.

Stay tuned.