
I started working as a proofreader simply because I find the English language (and what I know of one or two others!) absolutely fascinating. If you have a minute, let me share with you what a normal working day might be for me.
7am: Get up, make cup of tea, look at emails. At least 90 minutes of my regular day is admin – sending work to clients, answering queries from possible new clients, scheduling future work, advertising my services and clients’ books on Twitter. It’s not until around 9am that I can start on whatever book I’m currently working on. I’m not going to tell you I must have classical music playing in the background or fresh flowers on my desk, etc – I don’t need anything apart from my laptop, in fact when I’m working I shut out everything else. I can work on a train or in a bus station waiting room.
10am: I try, at least 4 days a week, to go to my local dance school, where I attend Fitsteps and ballet classes. This is essential because my work is sedentary – not only is it not healthy for me to sit on the sofa practically all day, but also I find I work better if I take a breather.
1pm – stop for lunch. I give myself a proper lunch hour like I had when I worked in an office, although unlike when I worked in an office, I watch TV! At the moment I’m hooked on Homicide Hunter and White Collar.
2pm (latest) – back to work! I pretty much work through until 5.15pm. It’s a fact that you can’t concentrate for more than 90 minutes, so it’s important to know when the brain needs a break. I’ll either get up and do something like hoovering or putting the washing on, or phone my writer sister (author Terry Tyler, https://twitter.com/TerryTyler4); mind you, when I do this she normally effectively tells me to clear off because she’s redrafting/on a creative roll/in the throes of working out plot points etc. I should know better, I know what authors are like!
5.15 pm – Everything stops for Pointless on BBC1. Having been a big fan of this programme for ages, I was lucky enough to appear on it a couple of years ago. Here’s the link to my blog post with all the inside info on what it’s like behind the scenes, for fellow aficionados!
https://juliaproofreader.wordpress.com/2015/07/27/lights-camera-action-my-appearance-on-bbc1s-pointless/

The books I work on vary enormously. There’s no such thing as a writer who doesn’t make mistakes (this includes me – imagine how circumspect I have to be in my Twitter or Facebook posts!)
The reason for this is that when we read our own work, we see what we expect to see. Unless we are reading slowly and really concentrating on a sentence of, for example, 10 words, we only actually read the 1st, 5th and 10th word, and our brain fills in the blanks to make sense of it.
In an average book of, say, 80,000 words I can find anything from 400 to 10,000 corrections that need making. The advantage of hiring a proofreader to look at your work is that they are a fresh pair of eyes, and have no preconceived ideas about what you’ve written.
What I love about being a proofreader:
· Never knowing what book I’m going to discover next
· The challenge of finding errors and explaining what I’ve changed and why
· Occasional hilarious typos – I wrote a blog post about this https://juliaproofreader.wordpress.com/2015/12/14/10-funniest-typos-and-a-couple-more/
· Pretty much everything really
I’d like to thank all of my clients, past present and future, for making my waking hours so varied and interesting. I never know what world I’m going to step into next.
Julia Gibbs
T: https://twitter.com/ProofreadJulia
F: https://www.facebook.com/ProofreaderJulia/
E: juliaproofreader@gmail.com
Really lovely to see Julia here today, she's one of life's gems.
ReplyDeleteOff to share this post, many thanks for the shout-out.
Thank you so much, Rosie, and I'm glad to have met you. And an enormous thank-you to Words with JAM and Triskele Books, for asking me to take part.
ReplyDeleteAnd I thought i was a workaholic!!
ReplyDeleteHow organised - I'm impressed. Lovely insight, Julia - thank you.
ReplyDeleteThank you - my dear father always had his routine, and so do I, I believe that organisation sets you free. I have a little plan for every day. But I suppose that's the sort of trait that aids proofreading - I like to have rules and apply them!
ReplyDeleteBrilliant! OH does mine...and edits..so interesting to see what he finds when I THINK I have spotted everything.
ReplyDeleteExcellent blog and very true. I rarely sell at book events, but do sell at craft shows and farmer’s markets. I stay off author sites like Goodreads, and use Linked In where I connect with non-authors. Same with Twitter. Thanks for your insight, right on.
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