I am a new editor and proof reader from Australia for Freelancer.
My previous work was in an academic context when I worked in the Distance part of TAFE here in Queensland. I edited & proof read the learning materials from lots of other sections as well as our own. My own team prepared adults across a wide variety of subjects for a second-chance at university entrance.
Before starting that work I successfully studied the Institute's editing and proofreading courses. We focussed on typos, misspelled or misused words, punctuation errors, faulty formatting and grammatical errors etc. Noticing those sorts of errors has become second nature now whatever I read, wherever I read it!
I have also been a keen reader of fiction for decades, and really love being taken into another world with its particular characters, historical period, location, mores, socio-economics and issues. Creative writing uses a different style of writing, of course, and the writer sets up a particular voice with its own style of sentences and grammar usage. But still, the same basics of typos, misspelled or misused words, faulty formatting and grammatical errors must still be correct. I see no difference in dealing successfully with them in a novel or story compared to what I used to do.
I look forward to working carefully but sympathetically in the world of your mother’s story. I have allowed 10 days so we could liaise about the story as I go to ensure I am sensitive to your intentions.