As a writer it's our worst fear, right?
We finally find the courage and confidence to show our work to someone, and there it is - the dreaded typo, missed word, doubled-up word, or sentence we haven't edited properly after a re-write.
And it's SO easy to do, especially by the third, fourth, or tenth, edit of our book.
I've done it believe me. Everyone has.
But did you know there is a super simple trick to avoiding these silly mistakes forever - and the best part is, it's free and already installed on your computer!
That's right...
Some people write their first drafts on a publishing platform like Wattpad or Inkitt, or maybe into a formatting program like Reedsy ( more on all these in later posts), but the best tip I can give you for avoiding typos and other nasties, is USE MICROSOFT WORD, or at least copy and paste your work into Word.
The reason for this, is a simple feature tucked away in the ribbon called Read Aloud.
You can find it by clicking Review - then - Read Aloud. It's the second option from the left after Check Document and has a big A on the tab.
When you're finished editing a chapter, or when you get to the end of the editing process, USE THIS TOOL and if the caps make you feel like I'm yelling it - I AM!!!!!
This simple, free, feature changed my life...
Hearing the work read back to you makes it almost impossible to miss typos that sound weird, words you may have left out, or the dreaded double-up of the same word.
And even though it is a bit. of. a. clunky. robot. voice. it will give you a better idea of how the work reads.
Try it...
It will save you so much heartache - you have my Word! (see what I did there 😂)