Vancouver Tech Journal's Nathan Caddell on Proofreading
"Read through stories twice."
Local newspapers are an endangered species, threatened both by larger national newspapers and declining print subscriptions. Yet email newsletters—in part, thanks to Substack—have been a bright spot as a way to build a loyal readership who are willing to pay for news that matters.
Vancouver Tech Journal is part of that emerging trend. First as an independent Substack publication, later as part of Overstory Media, it’s uncovering unique local stories about the tech scene in Vancouver. I’d chatted last year founder William Johnson about local journalism and Substacks, and this year, Vancouver Tech Journal’s new senior editor Nathan Caddell took the time to share his proofreading workflow for their web plus newsletter publication.
Here's Nathan on his writing and proofreading workflow:
What's your favorite thing you've written recently?
My personal favourite thing I've written (somewhat) recently is this profile of Colleen Hardwick when I was still an editor at Vancouver magazine.
It was definitely a team effort and I depended tremendously on the help of my fellow editors.
What's your standard writing workflow?
I'm often working on multiple projects per day, so I try to get any admin type things done early. I follow that with any editing I have to do on other writers' work. And then I will try and block off some time to write. I do end up switching back and forth quite a bit between writing and editing, so I try to outline my stories briefly first. Whenever I do an interview, I transcribe the whole thing and often I start forming the story in my head as I'm transcribing.
What's your favorite way to proofread your work and spot things to change?
Generally I like to read through stories twice. Once for story and whether it makes sense, and a second time for grammar and spelling stuff. That helps me focus on both elements.
What do you do with the things you cut?
I keep things I cut in mind always, but more often than not they don't get used. Sometimes they can help for context with similar issues.
→ Check out Nathan Caddell's writing, and follow him on Twitter @ncaddell.