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October 2020

15 Quick and Easy Proofreading Tips that are Essential to Your Writing Career

15 Quick and Easy Proofreading Tips that are Essential to Your Writing Career

written by The Magic Violinist

I recently had the privilege of proofreading Bryan Hutchinson’s new book, The Wee-Jees. Not only was it a wonderful chance for me to read a new story before it was officially released, but it was also excellent practice for me when it came to proofreading my writing.

But wait—does it even matter if I’m good at proofreading or not? Don’t spellcheck and autocorrect exist for a reason? Can’t I just hire someone to do it for me?

Note: This is a post by Positive Writer contributor Kate Foley.

The short answer: yes, being a good proofreader does matter.

You can—and should—hire a professional proofreader before publishing your work, but as the writer, you need to be the first set of eyes. You will save yourself time and money by investing in your own proofreading habits. The proofreader you hire should only have to catch final mistakes, not giant ones. Otherwise you will be looking at a much heftier bill than you bargained for.

But how does one proofread? And how does one do it well?

Luckily, my time with The Wee-Jees allowed me to come up with a list of fifteen quick and easy tips for more thorough, more time-efficient proofreading.

1) Clear your mind 

Never proofread when you are tired or rushed. If you are not 100% focused on your work, you will miss something. You will miss things, plural.

Block out plenty of time to get your work done and don’t try to bite off more than you can chew within that allotted time. Set your phone aside, turn off notifications from e-mail and Facebook, and get to work.

2) Avoid distractions 

Distraction is a recipe for glossing over misspelled words and missing commas. A conversation from the table behind you, a screaming baby, or even a TV in the background can trip you up.

If you’re someone who needs complete silence to focus, invest in a pair of noise-cancelling headphones, or at least retreat to a room that is quieter from the rest of the house. If you need ambient noise to work—like me—try playing classical music or some other noise without words or lyrics. My personal favorite resource is Coffitivity, which is ambient coffee shop noise that transforms my room into a bustling café.

3) Try proofreading at different times of day

Our brains are hardwired to be more effective at certain tasks at certain times of day. Just like you probably write better at different times, you will be better at catching mistakes in your writing at different times.

Try proofreading in the morning, afternoon, evening, and late at night. Spread out this proofreading time over four different days so you can analyze the results. When do you feel calmer and more focused? When are you better at catching grammatical mistakes?

For me, I prefer working well after dinner; proofreading feels like a sort of meditation, so I like to allow myself that quiet and focus right before I go to sleep. See what works for you!

4) Spread out your work

Take it from someone who’s made the same mistake, don’t try to do all of your proofreading at once. Don’t even try to do it all within a few days. Allow yourself to get little bits done over longer periods of time. Trust me.

5) Get plenty of sleep 

Proofreading with a groggy mind is not fun. Get those eight hours, if you can, before you work. If you can’t get the full eight hours, at least aim for something higher than four. Be kind to your mind.

6) Read the document out loud 

When you read out loud, you are forced to sound out every word, even the smaller ones you can skip over in your mind. This is one of the best ways to catch missing words or words that have been written out twice; your brain can’t fill in the blanks for you when you’re speaking the sentences.

If you can’t proofread in private, try whispering or even mouthing the words to yourself. Any little bit helps.

7) Use a ruler to look at one sentence at a time 

This is a unique little trick I learned when I began proofreading for others. It’s a huge help when you’re feeling unfocused.

Place a ruler directly underneath the sentence you’re currently reading to cover up the lines that come after it. This forces your eyes to focus on one line at a time, rather than skipping around the page and missing mistakes or getting overwhelmed.

8) Sound out longer words 

When you look at a long word, your brain tends to “autocorrect” it in your mind; it still recognizes the word even if it is misspelled.

When you come across a word longer than three syllables, sound it out, bit by bit. If you focus on each syllable on its own, it will be easier for you to catch missing or misplaced letters.

9) Watch out for homophones! 

Just because a word sounds correct doesn’t mean that it’s the right word. I write down wrong homophones all the time; it’s only in the proofreading stage that I realize what I’ve done.

Common homophone mistakes include: principal/principle, hear/here, right/write, bare/bear, marry/merry, and many others.

10) Look out for double words

“The boy walked to to the store.” Do you see the mistake?

Double words almost always happen when they’re small, the ones that we tend to skip over in our heads (this is where reading out loud comes in handy). Keep your eyes peeled for these.

11) Proofread for more than just spelling and punctuation 

Proofreading isn’t just a way to test English majors on their spelling and punctuation: you have to recognize other mistakes as well.

What I mean by this is formatting: keep an eye out for changes in font, extra spaces in front of paragraphs, inconsistences in the way names are spelled or certain words are capitalized, inconsistencies in the spaces between chapter breaks, and so on.

You want your writing to be spelled correctly and formatted neatly. This is what makes your writing stand out as being more professional.

12) Keep track of common mistakes 

If you notice that you’ve made a certain mistake more than once within a single document, keep note of that. You can save yourself some time by searching for that mistake in particular and fixing every instance of it at once.

Utilize the “CTRL + F” function and search for words you consistently misspell or other slip-ups you’ve noticed. This is a great way to be more efficient.

13) Don’t forget to proofread beyond the actual text 

This goes along with #11: proofreading your writing is important, but once you’ve finished that, don’t forget to check other parts of the document as well.

Make a second pass on your table of contents, page numbers, headings, and anything else you might have ignored when jumping straight into your main paragraphs. Mistakes occur at this level as well.

14) Use spellcheck 

Spellcheck should not be your only line of defense, but it would be a waste of a perfectly good tool not to use it at all.

Once you’ve finished checking everything beginning to end, run spellcheck as a last measure. Inevitably, you will have missed something obvious that spellcheck can fix for you. Take advantage of that.

15) Finally, hire a fresh set of eyes 

The truth of the matter is, proofreading is hard, time consuming, and much more difficult when you’re looking at your own writing. There is plenty you can and should fix on your own, but nothing will replace that second set of eyes.

Hiring a proofreader is essential before you publish anything. The last thing you want is to not be taken seriously by others in the industry because you had a typo on page seven. There is an easy way to do that: hire a professional.

If you’re at step #15 now and you’re ready to hire someone, you’re in luck: I am a certified proofreader and I’m officially open for business. I will apply my eagle eye to anything you need to be polished: novels, short stories, resumes, cover letters, blog posts, advertisements, and more. The sky’s the limit!

If you’re interested in my services, please don’t hesitate to contact me at themagicviolinist (at) gmail.com. Tell me the details of your project and the timeline for which you’re aiming and we can work something out that fits both your needs and your budget. I’m committed to giving you professional treatment without emptying your wallet.

And that’s it! 

Once you’ve checked your document, double-checked it, and hired someone else to finish the job, you’re done! You can sit back, relax, publish your writing, and bask in the glory of your work. Pat yourself on the back for not cutting any corners and get ready to start all over again with the next project.

Do you use all of these tricks? What other tips do you have for proofreading? Let us know in the comments!

Don’t forget, Bryan has some great prizes celebrating the release of The Wee-Jees, you can get your name in the hat, (click) here and receive a free book on writing. (Expiring soon!)

Verified Evidence of the Paranormal in the Haunted Forest (Part 2)

Verified Evidence of the Paranormal in the Haunted Forest (Part 2)

written by Bryan Hutchinson

This is the follow-up post to the article (part 1) about the mysterious anomalies we captured in our photographs when we went to the locations where the events took place in my book, The Wee-Jees.

For those reading about this for the first time, The Wee-Jees is based on true events that took place in the haunted forest behind my childhood home. The forest was a scary place back when I was a kid, and, as Allison (photographer) and I recently discovered, it still very much is.

The Edge of the Forest

All photos in this post are actual shots from our trip to the haunted forest.

For Allison to verify the claims I wrote about in the book, which she hadn’t even read yet, is heartening because she was very skeptical about the events as I had explained them to her. It means a lot to me when someone who was so dubious ends up confirming the story with her own experiences and photographic evidence. It wasn’t part of the plan, but I’m grateful it happened if only to once again confirm that the forest is haunted and the Wee-Jees do exist!

I will warn you that this new book might be unnerving for some, so if you do not like reading and viewing anything about haunted locations with evidence, this book isn’t for you.

Click here to get your copy on Amazon!

How to Make Your Story So Compelling Everyone Will Want to Read It

How to Make Your Story So Compelling Everyone Will Want to Read It

written by Bryan Hutchinson

Everyone wants to know the answer to the kazillion-dollar question:

How do you get readers to show up, read your work, and become so invested in it that they can’t help but talk about it for days, weeks, and perhaps even years after they’ve read it?

*Near the end of this post, I issue a fun challenge to win an Amazon Gift Card.* 🙂

The first thing first is the most obvious, tell a good story.

Here’s the thing, though, lots of writers tell good stories, whether it’s a 2000-word article, a catchline, or even a book (especially a book).

And yet, a good story in of itself is not always enough.

After all, you’ve written good stories, and so have I, and yet we’ve both struggled to get readers to care enough to tell their friends and neighbors about what they’ve read.

What was missing?

What’s the special ingredient that gets readers to keep coming back, rereading it so often that even they are astounded as to why they can’t put your story down.

The Secret Sauce

You need a good hook: An Enticing Mystery, or Two, or Three.

It seems simple enough, right? Create a mystery—I mean, everyone loves a good mystery. And yet, it’s not that simple at all.

In fact, there is a mystery genre in writing, but if you’re like me writing a mystery story itself isn’t your cup of tea, and not all readers want to read a who-done-it. Then again, many love to read and write in the genre, just ask Watson!

That’s okay, if you don’t, your story could be a romantic thriller, or a romcom, or an epic fantasy story, or you could simply be trying to come up with the best slogan for a company that hired you.

All of these types of stories have room for a good mystery in them, questions the reader wants to answer, and when those questions are finally solved the reader receives such a powerful dopamine kick that it keeps them coming back to find out if they missed anything.

A good mystery or mysteries within your story is one of the key ingredients that make your writing must-read material. Readers love to question things. We, you and I, we are both readers too, we love to be fascinated and wonder about what was the meaning of this or that, and did that really happen the way you read it?

If you have a good story that the reader becomes invested in, you want to pull them in even further with mysteries they can solve (or think they can solve) and, more importantly, want to solve.

The Best Way to do This

One of the best ways I’ve found to create a good mystery readers are compelled to solve is to not make the hook so obvious. Sometimes this happens as a natural occurrence due to the story itself and sometimes you have to get creative and purposely add the elements of mystery.

Some Examples:

In my new book, The Wee-Jees, there are several mysteries tied into the story, some are obvious, and others are obscure, which when done right makes the story even more compelling.

Let’s start with the title: The Wee-Jees.

What are Wee-Jees? It’s a unique title because it sounds familiar yet is still so unfamiliar. What is it—where’d it come from? It’s a mystery, and I only reveal the answers within the story (or do I?).

This question of what the Wee-Jees are is even more compelling thanks to the subtitle of the book, A Ghost Story Based on True Events. 

Are they ghosts?

You’ll have to read the book to find out! So, already with the title, we have a mystery hook. But the title alone is not enough.

The Unintentional

There are many mysteries within the story itself, I am already receiving a ton of messages about chapter twelve, The Two Jakes. Some say what’s in that chapter is the spookiest thing they’ve read in a long time (in the best way possible).

But most people are emailing me a certain question about another event in another chapter, which I won’t reveal here. The answer, after all, is in the book, and in this case, like all good hooks, the answer itself is shrouded in mystery, too. It’s a great discussion starter when the book becomes the choice read in reader groups.

Several of the inquiries I’ve received have been unanticipated and have caught me by surprise, so parts of the mysteries were unintentional and are a natural part of the story. Good stories, especially those based on true events, will always have mysteries that develop within themselves. Some questions will never be answered.

Coming of Age and Love Story Questions

The story in my mind for 30 years wasn’t just about the strange events. My friends, and a young boy and girl’s first budding relationship, those stories get told because in order to give context to the otherworldly events I had to tell you, the reader, about everything that happened before, during, and after the events themselves.

It’s the context that makes this book so special and allows the already strange events to stand out in their absurdity. It’s also this coming of age story that really connects and raises questions within readers, especially those who see glimpses of their own childhood within my story.

These questions I could not anticipate as everyone sees a part of themselves somewhere in this story. So beware, memories can be triggered, much as Stephen King’s Stand by Me did for audiences in the 80’s.

How Many Are There?

A fun mystery in The Wee-Jees, which requires perhaps several rereads to solve, is:

How many ghosts are there?

How many ghosts are in the story? I’ll give you a hint, not all the ghosts in the book are obvious. There’s some sixth sense stuff going on that not everyone figures out after the first read-through, or the second, for that matter. Don’t worry, that’s not as big a giveaway as you might think–or is it? However, one Amazon reviewer (this is a clue) revealed some of the ghosts in her spoiler review (she guessing and she could be right).

Let’s have fun with this.

Enter to Win:

I tell you what, for anyone who has read The Wee-Jees, I’ll send you a gift if you solve the following mystery:

  • If you send me an email to bryanpositivewriter (at) gmail (dot) com correctly naming and/or describing all of the ghosts in the story, I will reply to you with a $50.00 Amazon gift card! You must name and/or describe ALL of the ghosts.

I’ll update this post here when the mystery has been solved! Send your answer to:

Take your time and read the book a few times before sending me your answer because I will only accept one entry per reader and only the first person who gets it right will win! The cut off to send your answer to me is Halloween, Oct 31, 2020!

The best part is that the book is just 99cents on Amazon until Midnight, 31 October! So it’s a small investment to read a nice little spooky story and have fun doing it. I recommend reading this one in bed, in the dark, with a flashlight the first time (if you dare).

It’s a short book, so surely you can read it several times before the 31st! Keep a pencil and notepad with you while you read it during the second (or third) time.

Conclusion:

All great stories do this, they have a good mystery, or several mysteries, layered within them.

Have you created intriguing mysteries within your stories? I’d love to hear about them in the comments!

Photographic Evidence of the Paranormal in the Haunted Forest

Photographic Evidence of the Paranormal in the Haunted Forest

written by Bryan Hutchinson

UPDATE: I have created a new blog based on my travels throughout Europe and the Paranormal Evidence I have gathered, it’s, Bryan’s Paranormal Travel Blog.

I never expected to capture what we captured in our photographs, and I am beyond astounded.

In a very real sense, I feel validated.

Not long ago, when taking photos of the actual locations where the events took place in my book, The Wee-Jees, we captured some very strange things in our pictures. We don’t know for certain what the anomalies are but we have our suspicions, and in the following video, I share a couple of the photos that went viral across social media, especially “THE” Orb shot.

Please note, the follow-up posts and photos will be published on https://paranormal-evidence.com/ so feel free to subscribe and stay up to date on publication there. The photos from our docu-trips are amazing and show something else is out there, including a photo of the shadow figure standing by a tree (which you can briefly see in the video).

You should also follow my Facebook page because I post announcements, photos, and new videos there on a regular basis.

All 13 (of course, it just had to be 13!) of the photos will soon be published AVAILABLE NOW in the new book for everyone to view with all of the evidence to make up your own minds! The photographs are genuine and are welcome to scrutiny.

Here’s the infamous first photo:

For some background, my book, The Wee-Jees, is based on true events from my youth that took place in the haunted forest behind my childhood home.

Based on our photographic and firsthand evidence, the forest is still very haunted.

Professionals in the paranormal field have said such anomalies as what we have captured in our photos can be residual, or even intelligent, hauntings and are typically found in exceptionally haunted locations. We also experienced audible events but we cannot prove what they were; however, we are sure the majority were normal forest/animal noises, but do listen to the ‘groan’ sound in the video just before I leave the cave and I fall down the side of the mountain.

Why We Took Photos

After I finally finished The Wee-Jees and it was with the editor, I became restless and came up with the idea that I should get pictures of the actual locations in the book for readers to see and have a better idea of what the surroundings look like there. However, we never expected to capture anything more than the landscape.

The forest blew our collective minds!

Now, here’s the thing, I had not been back to that forest in years, and considering the events took place some 30 plus years ago, I kind of forgot how haunted it really is.

Don’t misunderstand me, I was able to write about the events in detail, I remember the events all too well, but there’s a HUGE difference between sitting in the comfort of your home writing, and actually, physically, walking those old haunted paths.

And those woods are absolutely haunted, let there be no doubt about that. For me, the photos collected in the new book, prove it.

WHEN?

The new book is available now. Click here to get it exclusively on Amazon!

Photo of the orb in the flowers © Diana Palacios. All photos are authentic and have not been manipulated, other than some cropping and zooming. Professionals interested in investigating the original photos, or the actual location, please contact me directly.

Read and see more of my paranormal evidence here: Bryan’s Paranormal Travel Blog.

The Wee-Jees: A Ghost Story Based on True Events

The Wee-Jees: A Ghost Story Based on True Events

written by Bryan Hutchinson

I am very happy to announce the publication of my new book:

…

A group of friends trek deep into a haunted forest for what they expect will be a fun adventure. Instead, they end up in a terrifying game of cat and mouse with something otherworldly.

If you enjoy scary stories based on real hauntings this book is for you.

The Wee-Jees is very different from anything else I’ve written.

It’s a ghost story based on true events from my childhood when I lived near a haunted forest. I’ve written a dozen books and yet this is the book I’ve always wanted to write but eluded me for so long.

Now, with it finished, I am relieved, but also nervous with anticipation. I never wanted to scare anyone, but I have no choice. The story needed to be told.

I trust that you know the feeling because you have a story that needs to be told, too! I hope my story in today’s post inspires you to not only read mine but to write and share yours.

How I finally wrote the story that refused to be written (and you can, too!)

I wanted to write this story for many years, but something always came between me and the writing of it. In fact, about a half-dozen years ago I wrote a few chapters and sent them to my then editor, but she refused to finish reading them and instead insisted I talk about the events with a priest.

After my editor’s refusal, I gave up writing the story for several more years. I thought her suggestion to go see a priest was made in jest and she was merely saving me from rejection. It turned out that she was very serious, and her refusal to critique the chapters had nothing to do with whether my writing was any good or not.

Many other weird things happened whenever I tried to chronicle the story. Once, I somehow accidentally threw away a notebook filled with several chapters. By the time I realized what happened, the garbage collector had already picked up the trash and it was gone forever.

It’s as though the writing of this story was intentionally being stopped, and frankly, I believe that to be true.

I know how that sounds, but either subconsciously or in some other way, whenever I wrote about certain aspects of the story in detailed ways, I would stall and then stop writing about it, often for years.

For the longest while, I thought it was writer’s block, trauma, or my own fears of reliving those events, and although all those things are likely true to some degree, I believe something else was keeping me from telling the story.

In the moments when I doubted myself, doubted my writing, and even doubted my story, I told myself I can do this, I can write this story, I must write it, if not for anyone else but myself.

I wrote it. And if I could write this story, you can write your story, too. I promise you.

Although I’ve fictionalized parts of the story to respect the anonymity of my friends and fill in blanks, the experiences involving the paranormal are written with raw and unfettered honesty, I don’t hide what we experienced in any way.

I don’t want to reveal too much more in this post, as to not spoil it.

I hope that you take a moment to purchase it on Amazon, read it, and connect with me after reading it if you’ve experienced anything similar. I’d love to hear your story. I will soon set up another website for those who have experienced the unexplainable.

As a writer, you have to write your story, whatever it might be. My story happens to be a ghost story. What’s yours?

This is my story. I hope you enjoy it.