Proofreader Looking For Work · 2:31pm Jul 12th, 2014
So after a couple lackadaisical attempts to get in to the proofreading side of fanfiction from just reading, I'm finally making a bigger effort. I applied to the two groups I found, The Proofreader Group and Looking for Editors. The second one intimidates me a bit, largely due to the volume of stories; the first has a form to fill out and I'm not sure if they're backlogged on accepting applications, but here's hoping I get in sooner rather than later. I'm kind of chomping at the bit to get started, but I don't know how long actually finding an author with a story I'd be interested in will take.
The Proofreader Group, as I mentioned, had a form to fill out, and while I at first thought it would be tedious to fill out a "Notes" section, I actually found it to be a good experience. I had to think about what to say to get some attention drawn to me, and hopefully the kind of attention I'd enjoy; brilliant hippogriff that I am, however, I didn't bother making a copy of the notes I typed out, and had to sort through several dozen closed tabs to find it again. So mostly for my sake in case I need it again, I'm putting it here. Considering that I have no followers (and no reason for followers, having not written any blog posts before this, nor any stories), I don't think this will actually accomplish much right now, but who knows?
Anyway, here goes.
* * *
While new to proofreading or editing fiction, I've been a bookworm since I was five. I like to read all manner of things, from hard science fiction to sappy romance, Shel Silverstein to William Gibson.
I'm quite confident in my proofreading abilities (catching misuse of words, miscellaneous punctuation correction, rewording a sentence or paragraph to be more understandable), but I'm not sure about higher-level editing; I haven't had much experience with actually writing fiction, and I'm too self-conscious to get in to that side of things at this juncture, but one of my hopes is that working with some authors might help with that.
My biggest flaws (that would be applicable to this) are my love of parenthesis; I love the asides you can slip in with them mid-sentence. Additionally, the semicolon and I have quite the love affair; I see them as grammar-glue for cheating the run-on sentence goblins. Finally, I have a rather dark confession to make; while I was nearly a straight 'A' student, the 'nearly' was English class. I am both horrible at and completely uninterested in diagramming sentences, and terms like "splitting infinitives" just make me think of some delightful prose version of a fission reactor. I go by the rule of "If it doesn't sound right, fix it.", which means the things I try to 'fix' may be grammatically correct, but I didn't like the way the sentence flowed.
Hopefully some of you will give me a chance to work with you despite these shortcomings, and if so, I look forward to reading your work!
Possibly slightly creepy, but I make a habit of having a quick look at folks who 'fav' anything I've written (thanks -- I hope you enjoy Wasp!).
That said -- and I know this is coming six+ weeks after you posted this blog -- are you still interested in doing some proofing?
2402773 Yes, yes I would! I'd be happy and honored to take a look at something, in whatever form is most convenient for you.
^v^
2405184
Excellent!
There are a couple of things in the works that I could do with another set of eyes on:
1) The early chapters of Wasp had essentially no proofing, except by me. Looking at them now, with three years of writing experience, they are a bit rubbish compared to my current output. I've started reworking them, but I'm really too close to be objective.
2) Wasp and Final's far future sequel is unpublished and about 60% done; this was written over the same timescale as Wasp and suffers from the same problem, but has had far less attention (the plan is to finish it before starting posting; this is the plan for September, to actually finish the thing -- it is currently at 100K words).
Either of those take your fancy?
I write offline but use GDOCs for editing; the commenting/suggesting functions are pretty good, so I'd go with that, if that works for you.
2405352
Hmm, I'm only up to chapter 21 of Days of Wasp and Spider, although I'll probably have that finished tomorrow or the day after; I'm not sure what I could do to improve the early chapters, but maybe I'll have an idea what you mean after I finish it and start the next one. I'd be happy to try either; if it's set significantly forward of the other stories, I'd assume I wouldn't necessarily need to be finished with the second story for purposes of spotting continuity errors and such.
Since I seem to have written sentences without actually giving a meaningful response yes or no, I'll go with "Yes, I would be interested in #1 as long as you think there are ways I could benefit it, and yes to #2, if you either think familiarity with the second story would not be that important to proofreading it, or you would be willing to wait for me to finish the second story as well."
2405441
Thinking about it, the edits I'm making to Wasp are mostly structural (replacing tell with show, and so on), so that probably isn't the best starting point. I have a couple of people helping with the draft chapters of Final Solution, but everyone has different skills so you are welcome to join them when (assuming it's not driven you mad by then!) you get that far.
#2 would be the better bet, I think -- I'll upload a set of files to my Gdrive; if you have a gmail address (via PM) I can add you to the permissions list (or just make it 'open' and send you the link, let me know what you'd prefer). The story was written to be independent of the earlier ones (so same universe), so no prior knowledge required.
...and when you do decide to start writing, I'll be happy to return the favour.