Hello everyone! Just here to share random news and stories.

I recently became a proofreader for a translation group of Chinese BL novels that I was reading on wattpad. It was a really spur of the moment decision as the main points the translator/host asked for was someone who was proficient in English, wouldn't spoil the stories/comment on the chapters, and someone okay with not being paid. I met all three criteria and had seen the post for a proofreader, so I decided to give it a go.

Not long after contacting the leader of the group, she essentially hired me and quickly sent me a chapter to proofread. To be honest, proofreading is a new experience for me, specifically for translated stories. From Chinese to English, there are a lot of discrepancies in the language, and simply rearranging sentences to be grammatically correct in English can change a lot of the meaning of the original content. I don't know any Chinese, so I can't even check the raws to see what the original meaning is supposed to be, I just have to trust the translator.

One thing I have really noticed is that almost every paragraph was one or two long run-on sentences! I had to cut those sentences, change the tenses, rearrange words to sound more coherent in English, and just do basic spelling/word usage checks. 

Right now, after about a week, I am proofreading my 8th chapter. I definitely think I am getting better, but I still feel wary changing things.

An interesting note, the leader asked that I proofread a story she has yet to release (other than the synopsis). I think it is due to a lack of translators and proofreaders willing to work on it because of the contents of the story, an mpreg story. I, of course, have no problem with mpreg, so I was added to the project. I hope with my additonal help, the story will be released for readers, because it is quite an interesting story!

So tonight was the night the first chapter I proofread was posted. Good news, people are now thanking me for my hard work! No one has said the chapter needs editing yet! Someone even commented on liking my name (DeviLaugh, ofc). Honestly, I feel like I cheated and simply get to read the chapters a bit earlier in addition to a bit of work proofreading. 

Looking at the chapter though, I found a lot of spots I missed, so I will be sure to do better on future chapters I work on. That, or someone went back and changed some of my revisions (which is fine, I guess). 

All in all, this one chapter being posted and my continual improvement in proofreading is encouraging to me.