The Devil is in the Details

It seems appropriate to start a post about making mistakes with a misquote, or at least a second-generation quote that underwent a significant evolution. The original version, "God is in the details," has been variously attributed to Michelangelo, Gustave Flaubert, and German-born architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. Whoever said it first, it didn't take long for the saying to spawn a corollary: "The devil is in the details."

When it comes to editing and proofreading, the details definitely take a devilish turn.

Which brings us to another truism: You can't proofread your own work.

Oh sure, you can try, and you might even catch a good 90-plus percent of your typos, misspellings, and grammatical errors. But you won't catch them all. And you won't catch nearly as many as you would if you were proofing someone else's work.

Why? It's simple: You don't see what's actually on the paper (or screen); your brain sees what it knows is supposed to be there. And the more times you've read and edited what you've written, the worse it gets.

Here are some tips and tricks you can use to make your final proofing more effective:

• Give yourself at least 24 hours (more, if you have the time to spare) between finishing a project and doing your final proofing.
• Proofread first thing in the morning. Don't try to proof when your eyes and brain are tired.
• If you're working on a text document, change the font and spacing, making what you're proofreading look different visually (and have different line and page breaks) than what you've already read seventeen times before.
• Proof back to front. Start at the end of your manuscript and proofread the last sentence, then the next-to-last, and so on. Seeing the sentences out of context will force you to read and judge each one on its own merits. If it helps, use a blank piece of paper to cover up everything above the sentence you're reading.

All of these tricks will help, but the best thing you can do is get some "fresh eyes". No, this isn't one of my horror stories in the making! I'm just suggesting (strongly) that you find a proofreader or a proofreading partner. You want someone with good spelling and grammar skills and an eye for detail. Secretaries (um, I mean "administrative assistants") are usually excellent proofreaders. So are English teachers if you're lucky enough to know one. Sometimes fellow writers will also do nicely, and they're usually willing if you'll do the same for them. But do "test drive" potential proofreaders. Not all writers can proofread, just as not all proofreaders can write. They're totally separate skills.

Whomever you choose, here's the key: do not let them read your work in any form until you're ready for the final proof. Don't ask them for critiques. Don't have them do interim checkups on your grammar. Save those precious "fresh eyes" until the very last minute, right before you're ready to submit your story or book, then put them to work. Because your proofreader has never seen your story before, his brain won't make any assumptions about what it's supposed to say, and he'll see what's really there.

All of which is a long-winded way of making an excuse for the mistakes you're undoubtedly going to find in this blog as we go along. Try as I might to make everything I post perfect (and, results notwithstanding, I do try), some errors are going to slip past me. Horrifying but true. Some already have shown up here, as readers have gleefully pointed out to me. I guess that's what you get when you proclaim you're going to give grammar and editing advice.

My excuse, make that excuses:

1. I'm not perfect. It pisses me off to no end, but I'm not.

2. I don't have the time to run my posts by any eyes but my own before they go live on this site. And, just like yours, my eyes don't always catch mistakes in my own writing.

So, while I full expect my beloved readers to make snarky comments when the self-proclaimed "Comma Queen" gets something wrong (Who among us can pass up the opportunity to make a good snarky comment, after all?), I do hope you'll cut me just the teensiest bit of slack.

Meanwhile, I'll do the best I can hunting down those devils that live in the details and eradicating them with my trusty purple pen!

Comments

[Gary Denton]

"Let he among you, who is without typos, cast the first stone."

[ellie]

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