Last Wednesday, we encountered that classic proofreading “What Not To Do.” Namely, the family faux pas (don’t ask immediate members thereof to check your work. Just don’t. As in do not EVER unless you want to drag everyone to the next therapy session.)

So who you gonna call? It’s not like there is a ProofreadersBusters hanging around waiting to check out your manuscript. Or maybe there is.

They’re called writing critique groups, and you’d be surprised how many of those are, in fact, hanging around waiting to check out your manuscript. But finding the right group…ah, there’s the rub. Do you go with a specialty genre group or a general writing group? Do you want folks who are in the business of writing for Fame or Fortune, or folks who just like to write for Fun? Do you jump into an online critique group or drive across town to the library?

Well, little grasshopper, there are some things you must find out for yourself. Like what group is the best fit for you. Because, believe me, groups have personalities, styles, character. And you want to choose a group that matches yours. That’s the way to success.

A good critique group can fix a writing problem, keep you on track, and give you support. I know that’s what my buddies at the Centerville Writers do for me. Come to think of it, my group is a little like a therapy session (with a few grammar tips thrown in). So don’t sit around, reading your manuscript over and over again, wishing for an extra pair of eyes to give you a little insight. Go out and find your own ProofreadersBusters.

P.S. Or visit the Centerville Writers the first and third Thursday of the month, from 10 until noon at the Centerville Community Center.

Really, I don’t like to pick on Mr. Hall. He is, after all, usually the beneficent Mr. Hall. But there are times when he is not so beneficent. And since this is Wednesday, I feel duty-bound to expose the un-beneficence of Mr. Hall as a classic “What Not To Do” on the Road to Publication.

Which is the long way of saying that one shouldn’t ask one’s family members to read one’s scathingly brilliant work. It can never go well. Never.

Take my latest column in the Atlanta Journal Constitution as Exhibit A (which you can read here if you search Cathy C. Hall). Even though I KNOW better, I asked Mr. Hall to take a quick look at it before I sent it off.

Naturally, Mr. Hall found something wrong. I suppose the defense could argue that Mr.Hall very generously (thus proving his beneficence) threw out a few “constructive” criticisms in my direction. But, and here’s my point about asking family to check your work, these “proofreading discussions” can get quite out-of-hand. Before you can say “Judge Judy” the proofreading is out the window altogether and the discussion has degenerated into what a certain brother-in-law said at the last family gathering about a certain someone’s over-cooked chicken.

So, little grasshopper, if you want to stay on speaking terms with your beloved, do not ask for his opinion about what you have written. It never goes well. Never. (I rest my case.)