A cool tip for editing/proofreading!
Nov 18, 2022 19:41:31 GMT
alexnorcross, nosferatuzzi, and 3 more like this
Post by Chris Miller on Nov 18, 2022 19:41:31 GMT
I'm sure I'm not the only one who does this, but I don't know if it's been brought up in here before. I've always hated finding small errors in my books after they release and are out there for the world to see; small typos or missing words, things of that nature that got past both me and the editor.
So, having my upcoming novel DUB-TOWN BLUES (a southern gothic mystery/crime thriller) in its very final stages, I thought I'd share how I'm finalizing it for release.
I just got the manuscript back from my editor and went through the edits meticulously. They were great, had great suggestions, caught all kinds of brain farts I missed in my revisions and polishing. In the past, that would have been it aside from me doing a final read through. But I still missed things that way. Then I started to change the font to help me spot things. That helped, but there were still things that got past me. So, I suggest writers start trying this method:
In Word, there is a READ ALOUD option in the review section. What I do first is change the font to something different than what I wrote and edited the manuscript in, then turn on the read aloud button and listen as I read along with the audio. WOW! What a difference just having that audio reading the words makes. I know many authors will do something similar by reading it aloud themselves, but I'm simply not going to do that on 80-120K word manuscripts. But this? This makes a huge, positive difference, and really makes that final product glow. At least for me. Great trick for getting your manuscript ready for the masses, so I thought I'd share in case anyone out there hadn't thought of this. It takes a little extra time, but it's totally worth it. Along with finding extra or missing words and typos, you also notice sentences that just don't sound right, so you can pause, rewrite or reword something, and then bam! The book gets better!
Anyway, give it a try. I'm not sure if Google Docs has a similar feature or not, or Pages for Mac (or Word for Mac, for that matter), but Word on the PC does, and it's a great thing to use!
Peace, and have a Miller on me.
So, having my upcoming novel DUB-TOWN BLUES (a southern gothic mystery/crime thriller) in its very final stages, I thought I'd share how I'm finalizing it for release.
I just got the manuscript back from my editor and went through the edits meticulously. They were great, had great suggestions, caught all kinds of brain farts I missed in my revisions and polishing. In the past, that would have been it aside from me doing a final read through. But I still missed things that way. Then I started to change the font to help me spot things. That helped, but there were still things that got past me. So, I suggest writers start trying this method:
In Word, there is a READ ALOUD option in the review section. What I do first is change the font to something different than what I wrote and edited the manuscript in, then turn on the read aloud button and listen as I read along with the audio. WOW! What a difference just having that audio reading the words makes. I know many authors will do something similar by reading it aloud themselves, but I'm simply not going to do that on 80-120K word manuscripts. But this? This makes a huge, positive difference, and really makes that final product glow. At least for me. Great trick for getting your manuscript ready for the masses, so I thought I'd share in case anyone out there hadn't thought of this. It takes a little extra time, but it's totally worth it. Along with finding extra or missing words and typos, you also notice sentences that just don't sound right, so you can pause, rewrite or reword something, and then bam! The book gets better!
Anyway, give it a try. I'm not sure if Google Docs has a similar feature or not, or Pages for Mac (or Word for Mac, for that matter), but Word on the PC does, and it's a great thing to use!
Peace, and have a Miller on me.
