Errors Are More Than Just Typos

I’m sitting here on this cloudy Tuesday afternoon waiting for my proof copy of A Life Well Loved to make its way to my front door, anxious to proofread it in print form so I can tell the world it’s ready to read and, hopefully, enjoy. I had mentioned in an earlier post that it’s important to proofread your work before you put it up for sale. I would venture to say that’s an obvious statement, wouldn’t you agree? I think that’s why I didn’t touch on it all that much when I did include it in that earlier note. I have learned a lot through the writing of this second novel, not just about my family on which it is based, but the process of writing.

As I would complete a chapter, I would do a spellcheck, then read it for content, typos and such, print it off, and give it to my husband who is my in-house editor. I’m very fortunate in that he is very good at grammar, although not so much punctuation. But he is great at catching when I might get too wordy or maybe need a stronger word or phrase, and I am okay with his suggestions. If I don’t agree with his notes, we talk about it so he knows why I chose my particular wording. We will even throw ideas back and forth, sometimes keeping the wording as I originally wrote it, and sometimes going with his changes.

Once my book is done, I go through and read it again on my screen. I’m still looking for possible typos or grammar errors.  You always want to use spellcheck, but keep in mind it isn’t going to catch vary versus very, doing versus going, missing words, transposed words, and so on, so you should never rely only on your software catching all errors. You also need to watch for discrepancies. Maybe in chapter 2 you mention a character is 10 years old, but in chapter 15 that same character is written as 13. In one paragraph, I typed my mom’s real name rather than her character’s name. I also wrote “Ms. Caswall” in a sentence. Why is that wrong, you ask? This was a conversation taking place in the 1880s. I’m pretty sure no one was using that term in those days.

You also need to make sure things like the mention of a song are accurate to the time period you are writing about, even if it’s present time. My grandfather was a singer in a barbershop quartet when he was a young man. So for part of my story, I write that he also sang to my grandmother when courting her. A song he sang often, even with me when I was a little girl, was Let Me Call You Sweetheart.   It seemed a natural choice for a song he would have sung to his bride during their courtship. I researched the song and discovered it was not published until 1909. That is the year they were married, so he couldn’t have sung it to her before they married. I had to research songs that were popular before that time.  Anyone reading the story might not notice such a detail or even care, but I did care.

Of course, any writer has the option of creating stories and characters in any fashion they like. Otherwise, beaming people from planets to starships or having a vampire go to high school and fall in love with a human would be impossible. That’s what writing is all about. But even so, accuracy is still important. I think it wouldn’t have gone over too well if Edward thought Bella was groovy and far out in a 2012 classroom, even if he was 109 years old.

Another thing to look for is repetitive words and phrases.  That’s not to say you can’t use a word or phrase more than once because obviously that can’t be avoided. To give you a couple of examples: I once read a book by a well-established and popular author who let the reader know several times throughout the book that the characters had been married for 17 years.  Mentioning it later in the story as a reminder would have been fine, but every other chapter or thereabouts was absolutely not necessary.  In another novel, the story was great, but the main character was constantly grabbing things. The word grabbed was used 64 times. So the main thing I remember about this character is that she was a grabber. It was very distracting from the story. When I was re-reading my novel, I found I did that in one particular paragraph where the character “loved” doing this and that. I think that word showed up about half a dozen times in one paragraph. I didn’t realize it as I was writing it, and I didn’t catch it when I read the chapter back for typos. Thankfully, I did catch it when reading the entire novel. I simply rephrased some of the sentences so I didn’t have to use that word over and over again.

It is very rare that I have read a novel that didn’t have at least a few errors. Even with more than one person proofreading, there are still minor things that will be missed. That’s okay. It doesn’t hurt the story or the quality of the work. When you see a lot of errors, though, that shows the author didn’t take the time to proofread the work. Plus it’s also critical to have someone else read your work, too.  If you can’t afford an editor or proofreader, then ask a family member or friend if they will help. It’s also a good idea to have a grammar reference handy, such as a Gregg Reference Manual. I’m pretty good with grammar rules, but I still use my reference from time to time.

I have read on various blogs that some readers look only at the story and don’t care if there are typos, grammar errors, and the like. But my guess is that the majority of people who buy books want to know the author cared about the quality, not just the story. I have learned a lot between writing my first book and my second. I hope I continue to learn as I work on my next book and the book after that.  The learning should never stop. It’s easy to become complacent with writing. I suppose that’s true for any job, and writing is a job whether you make a few pennies or millions. Writers are lucky enough to love what we do, which is why we keep doing it over and over again.  Make it your goal to learn from each new venture, care about the quality and accuracy. That can only result in becoming better and better at your work, and with a little luck, enjoying much success.  If you ever have questions, I’m always happy to help.  Enjoy your day and thanks for hanging out.