As an admin veteran, I know that it’s hard to catch every mistake when typing up a small document. It’s worse with a book. I’ve learned never to rely on the spell-checkers because they don’t catch subtle mistakes such as “their” versus “there.”

Editing on the computer doesn’t work either, because I find myself too close to the project to catch even the most obvious mistakes. Eye strain is another factor. Instead, I print out the manuscript. Then I leave it and distract myself with other projects.

This helps me purge my memory of what I’ve gotten used to staring at. When I return to the manuscript, I’m looking at it from a fresher perspetive. I usually catch over two dozen typos and several formatting mistakes. Once I’m finished with this pass, I set the manuscript aside for another day.

This time, I’ll start with the last word on the last page and work backwards. I may find more mistakes. If not, I’ll do a little dance, and then set the manuscript aside for several more days.

Another trick I’ve learned is to read upside down. This is harder to do because of how I’ve been trained to read. But I find that it helps me pay closer attention. Sometimes, it helps me catch misspelled words.

I’ve outlined the easy part of the editing. The hard part, as you know, is the story mechanics.

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