It’s True, Two Heads Can Be Better than One
In the beginning of my freelance writing career, to say I was self‐doubting would be a major understatement. That is not to say I am now entirely secure. I have only been writing full‐time for approximately a year and I still proofread an article to death. If I read it 10 times, then I will make 10 changes. Hitting the send key to submit an article is still the most difficult thing I do that day. However, I do find that the more I write, the more confidence I gain.
Only a few months into writing, I somehow landed an article for a travel magazine. I enjoyed writing the article, which was about overseas retirement. It is a move that I plan for myself in the near future; therefore, I had already done a considerable amount of research on the topic. My son happened to be visiting shortly after I completed the article. Of course, I still had not hit that send key. Therefore, since he also writes, I asked him to proofread the article. Since I am born and raised in the South, I have to be careful about injecting my southern way of talking into my copy. I wanted him to make sure I had not done so.
After reading a couple of paragraphs, he stopped and told me that he must have gotten his writing skills from me. He said he had no idea I could write so well. Just as I was beginning to glow with pride, he added a “but”. He pointed out a sentence and diplomatically told me that the sentence structure might sound better if arranged a bit differently. We went through the whole article together. We made some changes that he suggested and some others that I suggested.
The first article was acceptable; however, the revised version was darn good. I come across that article now and then and even though I hope my writing skills have improved since that time, I am still proud of that article. To this day, when I feel insecure about an article I am working on, I still email it to my son to proofread for me. I learned a lot from him that day and I believe he learned from me as well. The article was more improved through our collaboration than if we had written it separately. It is sometimes true that two heads are better than one, especially if one of the heads belongs to your son.