I do two complete read-throughs for each and every one of my projects. The first read-through (1RT) is truly looking at every jot and tittle, every semicolon/colon and every space, every letter making up every word of the book. I do catch an incredible amount of typos and grammar snafus this way, and the going is slow. Depending on the project, I could be averaging two pages an hour, but my normal pace is ten.
On the second read-through, I see more big-picture things (plot developments and the like), but any things I missed in the 1RT are more likely to be in the initial quarter of the book, where the "world" and its characters are being set up. So much is going on in that introduction portion that it's overwhelming at first. However, with my second read-through (2RT), I now know how it all works out. Plus I have a lot of the distracting typos and grammar errors out of the way so the pure story line is left.
This 1RT clearing-of-the-path allows me to focus on multiple things in the 2RT, like continuity (seeing where one character stood up two paragraphs earlier and is standing up again without benefit of sitting down in between. Oops!). I see where I was confused by two characters whose names are too much alike, and so I suggest to the author to change either Mike or Mack to Steve or Paul so that the reader is not confused like I was the first time around. I may suggest a bit of foreshadowing to make a later event not so incongruous.
Or I could just do some simple additions like transitions to smooth out otherwise jerky and flat sentences. An example would be: I got up. I looked around. I heard a dog bark. Those three sentences could become: A barking dog had me getting up, looking around.
Also I focus on body language of the characters (not only per each individual but all of them collectively). We all use our favorites, and sometimes they are overdone (too much smiling and sighing going on or the main guy always runs his hands through his hair). The best thing we authors can do is to make up a list of all sorts of mannerisms to add as action tags instead of the rote ones we too often reach for. Mix 'em up for variety. Now I happen to be sensitive to repetitions, so once is "unique" to me. Twice is a repeat. Third is a pattern. Once I see that pattern, I find myself counting the number of times it appears in a story. That's bad. You don't want your readership stepping out of your story like that to monitor your writing style. Granted, your readership probably isn't wired like me to see these so readily. However, if you continue with these repeats throughout the manuscript, I bet your readers will see it at some point.
Anyway this is just a glance at what is going on in this copy editor's head while she is engrossed in a project. I do love what I do.
Denise Barker
Freelance Copy Editor
[email protected]