The Ugly Font (And Other Proofreading Tips)

Yikes, my computer screen is filled with an ugly font. Yet, this ugly font seems to make grammar or punctuation errors on the monitor jump out. Apparently, ugly fonts help proofreading because they make mistakes show up more clearly.

Perhaps because I'm not used to viewing that font, perhaps because the font emphasizes sentence structure rather than the flow of text, like standard fonts. I don't quite get the WHY, all I know is that ugly font approach works.

Book #1 is in the editing phase, and I'm altering sentence beginnings, grammar, and punctuation. To do this, it helps to focus on the structure of the sentences, thus the UGLY FONT.

Also, the ugly font is also sized to a large font size, so that the screen resembles a kindle page. So, I now have a large ugly font staring me in the face.

Another proofreading tip is to use a Text-to-Speech software to read the text back to you while you read along onscreen. So you have a better chance of finding mistakes if you both see and hear them. Dragon NaturallySpeaking has an accurate "Read That" feature. So, the combination of the Ugly Font and Listening while reading on the screen, does the trick.

Finally, proofreading by Point of View (POV) helps maintain that particular POV Character's voice. If you're writing in multiple POVs, then edit all the scenes and/or chapters for one character at a time. That way the style of the character's voice is maintained throughout that character's chapters.

Off to proof Book #1 in Ugly Font!