Quote:
Originally Posted by E.M.DuBois
And of course, you'd be wrong. I've spent years proofing and reproofing. Spell-check was never my only tool. I like how everyone has to include a spell-check jab, as if it does absolutely nothing for anybody. Anyway, yeah, I'd love to get it edited by a pair of independent eyes. But the whopping $1.16 in my bank account and my inability to offer a service in exchange for editing says that's not happening. So it's just going to have to be me.
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That being said: this is why God(s) in her/their infinite wisdom
created writing groups and critique groups. That's exactly why they exist. Surely, even today's new writers cannot be operating under some misapprehension that for a hundred years, all the writers that e'er were, and e'er were published, somehow paid for editors to review and fix their work, before they submitted them to agents and publishers? Or worse, the
equally irritating misapprehension that writers, themselves, didn't have to bother with all that pesky sh*t, and that's why editors and proofers, etc., at the publishers, existed? To clean up the detritus of the creative process?
Ye gods. Writing and critique groups exist for one purpose:
so that writers may improve their writing. That sadly-neglected phrase and concept, "improve your writing" doesn't mean merely tightening up action scenes, or polishing dialogue, or understanding how to write transitions; it means finding
egregious spelling and grammatical errors, as well. If you don't know the difference between there, their and they're, this is something that
you can at least learn to see and catch, if you invest the time and effort into
learning how to give and receive critiques. Critiquing--the giving and the getting--is an essential, essential part of a writer's development into a successful author. In my opinion, for what that's worth, it's not an optional, skip-this-if-you-feel-like-it step.
The good part?
This isn't expensive. Yes, yes, some groups have entry fees, to keep out the riffraff. Some critique groups are in private forums, which require membership, but
the real cost is in the fact that generally, you are required to
give as many crits as you get, or some form of reciprocity.
Very few new writers today are aware that you learn more, oftentimes, in giving crits, than getting crits. (n.b.: the reason that so many fora
require "giving to get" is because historically, if you leave writers to their own thing, and don't require the giving---you'll
never get the giving part. It's unfortunate but true. Typically, authors want the crits, but can't be bothered to give them. Thus, the 'give to get' methodology of most groups. Don't want to do the reciprocity? Then pay. That's why some groups charge--so that you will get the crits.)
You can find and join cheap local city college writing courses. Typically, $15-$25, total, for a night course. That
always involves critiquing. It can result in meeting writing buddies that you may have for your lifetime. Can't do that? Look for online courses. Everyone--positively everyone--can use a coach, a writing instructor. And again: you get readings and crits.
None of that works for you? Join a writer's group or forum or thread--like this one--and develop a group of your own. No? Then find a writing buddy. Make sure that it's not someone you're in love with, or even have to like--get someone who is strong where you are weak, and bring your strength to it, for his/her areas of weakness.
All of this is free or cheap. ALL of it. You don't have money, you trade your time/labor. It's a time-honored tradition. It's how a hundred years' of writers learned to perfect their craft, on their way to becoming trade-pubbed authors. They took CLASSES (yes, I know, bloody unheard of today!), they studied with their classmates, they had crits with their classmates and their instructors. They didn't just kerplunk down some full-length novel, and expect it to be the next "DaVinci Code." When they weren't taking courses, they went to writer's groups, and they each sat there and read pieces to each other. They suffered the slings and arrows of crits from their buddies--and glowed when they got great feedback. The first time they heard "oh, my god, that made me cry!," they could float off the ground for days.
This is how it's done. Realistically,
nobody learns to run before they can walk, and this is how everyone--back when the quality of writing mattered--learned to write, learned to proof their OWN work, or at the absolute minimum, learned how
to trade proofing with other people, to help find their own mistakes.
And all it takes is effort--not a lot of money. You'll be a better writer for it, not merely a better grammarian and speller.
(Personally, I think that "spellcheck" and "grammar check," etc., are utterly worthless.)
Hitch