Here's An Editing Hack...

 Disclaimer first—I do not consider myself a professional anything, so my suggestions and tips should be taken as just one more person on the internet sharing his personal opinion, based on his own experiences.  These tips and ideas may work for you too, but they may not.  Just saying.

Writing Tip #025

 

Okay, you’ve finished you first draft.  You’ve read through it once.  You’ve read through it twice.  You’ve fixed a countless number of mistakes both times you read through it.  You start in on your third pass through your work, and I’ll be damned, another misspelled word!  How is it that our eyes can read over the same misspelled word three to five times without even noticing it?

 

I’ve run across an easy hack which has helped me locate a lot of misspelled words in my latest work in progress, and it’s so simple.  If you’re using Microsoft Word to write your story, try using the “Read Aloud” tool in the Review tab.  Word isn’t flawless in paying attention to punctuation while reading, but when it reads a misspelled word out loud to you, you’re going to notice right away.

 

I use Word for all my writing, so I know this tool is available in the program.  If you need help finding it, please feel free to reach out in the comments, and I will do my best to direct you to it.  I’m pretty sure most other document programs have the “Read Aloud” option also.  I’d be happy to hear if any of those programs you are familiar with pay attention to punctuation while reading.  Please share if you can!

 

Keep Writing!