Uh, a little help, please! (Proofreading)

Hey Vocal fam, I got a confession:

I sock…

I mean …

I suck at proofreading my own work.

Yup. I really do.

And I’m impatient about it. Especially when it comes to my own stuff.

Once I spend my real, valuable time working tirelessly on an article, a story, a chapter—-I will literally just breeze through it, italicize a few words, maybe add a few ideas, fix a few things, but other than that—-I hate proofreading.

Proofreading is made for those people who have an eye for catching mistakes, from the smallest punctuation issue to the most glaring grammatical errors. And sometimes, there isn’t an actual error, but a different way of expressing the idea or something in a clearer direction that you as the author didn’t see.

I think when you’re writing something, you go over it so much that you almost get tunnel vision and grow accustomed to your own language and style. It is hard to see what could be seen as wrong or possibly something incoherent, because you are so into your own train of thought.

That’s me!

So… I’m asking for help?

Are there any lifeguards on duty here on Vocal?

Can we find a way to solve this crisis? Is it just me? Am I just terrible at proofreading?

Probably.

But, I find that when I re-read my published works——I find all sorts of things I need to fix!

I appreciate details, even as I’m not always a detail oriented person. If there is someone out there who sees a massive flaw in my sentence structure, I wanna hear about it. Or a spelling or grammatical error? Absolutely! Or how about a gaping plot hole? A little plot hole?

A continuity problem? A massive problem/gap in the space time continuum?

Hmmm. Yes, I need to know.

The problem is that… my brain is too fast for my fingers—-and my ideas slip past my eyes——and before I know it——there’s tons of little mistakes. And I already hit submit. Ugh!

So… anyone interested in starting a collaboration with this? It’ll literally cost us nothing and we all will get something out of it. Feedback, constructive criticism and proofreading for spelling and grammar errors. Most likely, compliments too!

If Vocal set up a platform for this—I would just die!

Not literally.

But like this maybe—-

So…. Hmmm… other than a private message system that members can use to start this process within Vocal… what else can we do to give our community support?

Message boards! (Might be a less invasive start)

Topics of interest, like:

1. Marketing(ideas for self promotion)
2. Collaborations for stories or articles
3. Posts for ongoing series for stories or articles
4. Surveys on what the Vocal community likes to read most of all!!!! (I want to know!)
5. For ideas and for feedback on certain drafts you’ve started! Regular Vocal support Questions. Proofreading and editing requests and offers!
6. Optimistic posts to keep everyone writing and keep up good ideas and spirits

And mainly, I need help!

Please.

I love you guys, too. Your various levels of masterful creativity, art and awesomeness inspires me everyday!

Like this science fiction story written by a Vocal member that is deeply moving, emotional resonant—-and beautifully written:

Seriously, this community really has helped me so much and with even more support added to our members: I feel it can enrich so many people whose voices may not have been heard otherwise.

This branch of communities have made me feel accepted and heard. Like when I expressed how I used to only write in the male perspective and how it was the only way I knew how to write(because I loved it and it made me feel comfortable), and how now, I feel better and can write in any perspective. And, fanfiction! I love fanfiction and Vocal seems to understand and appreciate that people use it for cathartic reasons and emotional support—I know I do. Fanfiction is the equivalent of my comfort food. And no, it’s not for the smut!!

I just published this little apocalyptic college number for the Doomsday challenge under fanfiction and it’s my “fun” submission(as I have other ones too that are just my original characters and stories):

With the challenges, the validation they give to members through the process of their work (quality, creativity, comedy, etc), the way they also pay their members for their effort and time, it’s something I wish I had known about a long time ago.

Anyway, thanks for reading. Hope you liked this. If you did enjoy 😊 my article, ❤️ me.

Or read something else of mine. Like this:

Or send me a little tip! I’m making a little zombie girl happy when I make the big bucks! Okay…. It’s just me. I’m the one who gets happy.

-Melissa