An odd experience proofing…

An odd thing happened the other day that I thought was worth sharing, for it isn’t something I’d either been told about, or read about or seen.

As mentioned before, I’m a fan of the big red/pink pen and always give my proofreaders and first readers one so it’s easy to see what they find or where they struggle. Though that requires a hardcopy, still nothing beats it – read through material on the screen and it’s easy to skip over errors.

But what if someone radically changes the format?

I love the pink pen

I have an excellent proof reader and some really good first readers. I am always delighted to see pink marks and observations come back on an early draft (or red, or purple – different pens, different people). I prefer pink pen marks because they stands out so well. For me, it’s not that I’ve failed but that the readers have engaged with what they have read.

And that is a wonderful thing.