PROGRESS REPORT: WEEK ENDING JUNE 28, 2014

As we close out June of 2014, The Free Choice E-zine almost broke 4000+ page views again thanks to its loyal readership.

Meanwhile, my worked has stopped on Chapter 11 of ALPHA, BOOK 2: WAYWARD SON for the moment because I have gotten Chapters 7, 8, and 9 back from my friendly beta/proof reader Nancy Hansen. I held off on sending her Chapter 10 until I saw what she thought of the last three, and it's a good thing I did, for I have already made some major changes to Chapter 8, which affect everything past that. Once I finish reviewing everything she sent me and go over Chapter 10 again, then I will send the latter to Nancy for her opinions.

So, as promised last week, let's have a brief discussion about proofreading.

Now, no one is perfect. I know that's hard to believe, but it's the truth. We're all human and make mistakes.

As such, nothing we write is perfect on the very first draft. That's why not only do many writers look over their material a lot on their own, even authors who are published on a regular basis have someone read over their work whenever possible before its submitted to the publisher. 

This person is called either a beta or proof reader.

They look for mistakes, as well as give their opinion of the material.

As friends and writing buddies, I read all of Nancy's work for her, and she returns the favor for me whenever possible. This way, between the two of us, we can hopefully eliminate any errors toward making our work the best it possibly can be.

Most writers turn to family member(s) or friend(s) for this task. Notice the plural (s), for there are writers who use more than one beta/proof reader during the course of creating, especially on novels.

Of course you must remember that no matter how many times you have reviewed the work yourself before submitting it, once your manuscript has been submitted, the publisher is going to have their own editorial staff look over your writing too.

So the more mistakes you've eliminated, the better you've made your manuscript before submitting it.

Got to get back to work now, so I'll see you around the Internet.

Lee Houston, Junior

30 June, 2014