I have been working on proofreading a manuscript for a friend, and today I decided to expedite the process by dedicating myself completely to the task early in the morning, before breakfast, before coffee, almost before getting up. Cat was quite bemused at early morning pre-dawn companionship.

I finished the text, and was moving on to the footnotes, when I realized that proofing footnotes probably wasn't necessary.

I asked the author and he said something vague, like "hell no". So I sent myself at my work email the text as an attachment, re-read it one last time (just a quick scan for egregious missed errors, like title or something), and sent it off to the author.

It's fun to proof something you'd enjoy reading anyway, though it's tempting to get caught up in the text itself and forget to read slowly enough to catch errors.

A certain amount was in a vernacular voice, and I was uncertain how much correction to suggest. I decided to enter all my notes and let the author decide for himself. It's his ms. after all.

I feel privileged to have been a part of it. And I really do enjoy proofreading, strange as that probably seems to other people. It's the moon in Virgo thing, I think. Not to mention it's a task I've been assigned all my adult career, so it's like second nature by now.

I can expedite with the best of them.