Hi all. Hope everyone had a great week.
I’ll explain the title of this blog post in a moment, but first a brief writing update:
As I mentioned on Wednesday I finished a new short story and sent it off to my critique partner. Now that it’s done (or close to it) I realize I feel like I’ve spent months with those two guys, writing a novel, not a short story. Hopefully that means something good. I don’t know.
Since then I’ve been focused on TAKE ME HOME. Now that I have all the revisions in place I’m working on another read-through to polish the dialogue and descriptions. Today I read the first 5 chapters, and I think they are ready to go. I still need to do my final checklist of common mistakes and get my critique partner’s input, but other than that, I finally feel like this book is close to submission-ready.
Now on to review the next 20+ chapters again.
(c) istockphoto.com, davidf 2010
Before I get back to it, I wanted to share a link. This week I blogged at Loose Ends, the Loose Id author blog, where I talked about the importance of having someone else proofread a story. The blog is titled: “Arrr! Lick Me Nipples” Or the Importance of Another Set of Eyes. I’m curious how much errors bother readers. I’d love to hear what you think. Feel free to leave a comment here or at Loose Ends.
Hope you all have a great weekend. My little baby nephew is getting married tomorrow. I guess that means he’s not a baby anymore. When did that happen?
Errors do bother me. I don’t believe an author can possibly catch all typos and such, but that’s what editors are for. Up until a book is published, OK, there might be some errors in the manuscript, but when the book is put out to the public to read…ARRGHH! I don’t like to see them, they stop my flow of reading.
Hi Leigh! Errors can really mess with the reader, can’t they? Hopefully the editor, copy editor, and proofreader will catch any errors the author misses, but I’ve also heard some editors say they stop reading a submission after the second typo. I think a manuscript really needs to be as error-free as possible even before it’s contracted, and another reader can help the author do that. I also believe that turning over the most professional manuscript you can to your editor shows a level of commitment to your work that any publisher would appreciate. Now if only I could figure out how to stop my characters from talking like pirates, that would be great.
Oh, they bother me! Enough so that there have been several books I could not finish due to the mess of errors. A misspelled word, a missed word or small errors here or there don’t bother me as much. Yes it may jar me out of the story, but I can deal with it. The ones that made me want to pull my hair out were ones that if they had just bothered to have someone else look at them it would have been real obvious. Like when the house described in detail in the beginning suddenly has a second floor. Or the flip phone that is now touchscreen. Or characters who’s names change in the middle of the story and then switch back to the original name!! A fresh pair of eyes at the end of the journey is something a lot of authors should seriously consider using.
Oh my, CJ, those are some good (or I guess I should say “bad”) examples of inconsistencies. Sometimes we’ve looked at our words and descriptions for too long or are so familiar with a previous name or description that it really is hard for us to see the mistake. Definitely time for another person to review. Even if that person is only reading for these types of errors, it can make a big difference in the manuscript. Thanks for the comment!