Article: Proofreading & Life Experience

One of the big issues for most writer's centers around editing the manuscript, down to the level of correcting errors. Below is some correspondence I had with Ms. Pam's class where they unearthed an error in the manuscript and helped to point it out.

From the class:
We really like your story. It is easy to visualize. We liked the lesson we learned about the kids in the burning shed. We think other chapters will be good to teach us lessons too. We have just finished the first chapter. We tried to draw connections to our own lives. We learned that authors use their own lives to help them write sometimes. Ms. Pam says that you have long hair and blue eyes just like Katie. Were you thinking of events in your life when you were writing this story?

We hope Katie gets to go back home someday. We would really like to finish the book in one day, but Ms. Pam won't let us go ahead yet.

We did find one sentence with an editing correction to make. There is a word missing in the following sentence (we are writing the missing word in red).

"Katie, sweetheart, it's because I love you so much that I want you to go live with your Uncle Charley."

We can't wait to read the rest! Ms. Pam says we might get to start taking parts of it home to read so we can come back to class and discuss it.

My response:
Thanks so much for sending me the email. I am glad you are enjoying the story so far and hope that you enjoy the rest as much as you have the first chapter.

Thank you for your sharp eyes in finding the missing word. Believe it or not, something that easy to see can be very hard when you go back to proof your writing. Proof means to review your manuscript (the book) for errors. I'm sure Ms. Pam proofreads your writing work and marks the mistakes to help point them out to you. The reason it is difficult to find those errors, whether the error is punctuation, spelling, missing words or any type of error, is that by the time you are reviewing the manuscript for errors, you know it so well that your mind fills in the missing bits or corrects the punctuation. Since your mind knows that the word is supposed to be there, it supplies it and your eye does not "see" that it is missing.

This is the reason why an author should ALWAYS have someone else proofread the manuscript after they have gone through it, because the last thing you want to do is submit something to a publisher with mistakes in it. (It's a good idea for homework too.)

An author does draw on their own life to help them create their stories, but not just about the events of their lives, but on the emotions, opinions and attitudes. While it is true that Katie and I share long, blonde hair and blue eyes, we are also two very different people. (I never burned down a shed.) She, like me, is somewhat of a tomboy, trying to find out who she is, and is very emotional. The actual experiences that Katie is going through, experimenting with smoking and drinking, running away from home, being sent to live with relatives, has never been a part of my life.

How can I write about it then? Well, I watch people and listen to their stories, and because I have a good imagination and am very empathetic (the action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another of either the past or present without having the feelings, thoughts, and experience fully communicated in an objectively explicit manner) I can imagine how they feel or would feel if certain things were happening.

Since you have just finished the first chapter, I can tell you that when I originally wrote this book, most of what you have read so far was not even a part of the story. In the original manuscript, the story started with Katie getting on the bus and leaving home. I then had a flashback sequence where Katie was thinking about the events leading up to her being put on the bus to go live with Uncle Charley. In that version, the shed did not burn down and she and Timmy didn't try smoking or drinking. That part was actually added a few years after I finished the book.

Why did I change it? I had the book accepted by one agent who had it for a few years trying to find a publisher for it, and then the agency was changing direction and they were no longer going to handle my genre (a category of artistic, musical, or literary composition characterized by a particular style, form, or content) of book. So, I started sending it out to other agents trying to interest them in helping me to get the book published. One agent responded that she would like to see a more action packed beginning, so I went back to the drawing board and tried to come up with something that would grab your (the reader) attention from the get-go. I think burning down a shed was a pretty good way to get your attention, don't you?

Well, I'd better send this email before it becomes long enough for a book too.

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