I’m in the middle of proofreading and editing the first draft of Reunion at the Happy Valley Motor Inn and Resort. Every time I go through this process with a book I’m amazed at the silly errors I’ve made.
Honestly, I should turn out a better first draft. I taught English, for pity’s sake. My spelling savvy has always been above average; although, time and spell check have played hell with that skill. And I have a prodigious vocabulary. (See what I did there?) Yet, I often leave out words, apostrophes, and the occasional comma. My excuse? My brain works faster than my fingers do. Or maybe my fingers work faster than my brain. I’m sure one of the two is true.
With the help of several eagle-eyed beta readers I’m combing through my missteps, and just this morning I ran the editing program that comes with Microsoft Word. My score for the document was good, but not yet perfect, so I did a quick search to find the culprit.
Apparently Word’s editor thought we were trapped in a vintage Wendy’s commercial.
Peace, people.
Praying for Eyebrowz 
Ha ha. Brill xxxx
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I have the problem on transposing letters. I.e., monring for morning. 😦
Good beta readers are a wonderful “tool” and you can see the sad result when some writers don’t use them. It takes more than SpellCheck to discover that in Chapter One Grandpa died twelve years ago, then three chapters further along he died almost two years ago. Or even “human nature” errors, like when she’s widowed at the get-go and never once during the story does she actually miss her husband or flash back to some good times together.
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Exactly! I often have someone get into a car or walk into a house only to have my beta reader day, “they did that three paragraphs ago.”
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And if the beta is aware that you want the fewest words necessary, they can point out the times you’ve written the same thing about someone. I find writers inclined to over-state a character’s feelings, like maybe “She thought her daughter was making a terrible mistake…” When we read about it every other time she thinks about her daughter, it finally seems done only for melodrama. I want to say, “Okay, I get it already!”
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That made me laugh. Thank goodness your human brain overrides spell check; otherwise that line would make no sense.
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Lol!
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That’s funny, Leslie. I have a theory about having trouble coming up that right word that I know I know but can’t remember. I think it’s because I have gathered so many words during my 66 years, that it takes me a long time to go through all the options to find the one I want. That’s my story and I’m sticking with it. 🙂 Happy editing!
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I know what you mean! I was looking for a specific word for a smell. All I puked think of was “unappetizing”, but a friend instantly knew what I was looking for: acrid.
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😉
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Isn’t it funny how we lose our “fresh eyes” when looking at a draft for the umpteenth time? Congrats on nearing the finish line!
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It really is amazing. And the thing is, as soon as we hit publish, I’ll find half a dozen more errors.
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Of course!😜
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Wow…it’s the ’80s run amok. Next thing you know, it’ll be flagging “crapper” and suggestion “clapper” instead.
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Ha!! I could give it a test run…
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