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Photo by Serge Bertasius Photography at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
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I don't always listen. Even in my more advanced age, I still act
like a willful child and try my way first. Sometimes that’s a good idea, other
times I pay a painful price for not heeding the advice of those more experienced.
One of those painful lessons happened recently.
Writing pros suggest one of the best methods of self-editing and proofreading
is to read the text aloud. I tried, but found the chore tedious, not to mention
tough on the voice, and in my infinite wisdom decided to skip that part. Oh, I did
submit the manuscript to my critique partner and to Beta Readers, but after implementing
their suggestions and corrections, I took it upon myself to make some further
changes. Not wrong, by any means, until I did the proofreading myself, without
showing it to anyone else, or following the pros advice to read the new text
aloud.
The result? I am now hanging my head in shame
over simple mistakes that could have been avoided, if only I had listened to
those who tried to advise me. I am going through each book and correcting the
errors, but I cringe thinking about how many flawed copies are now floating
around out there in cyberspace — forever — because of my laziness, not to
mention stubbornness.
