(Please Read!) BP: My Characters Give Me a Pep Talk

(Y'all, none of this is canon, but please read it anyway.)

I'm sitting slouched over a desk, demoralized, when a portal opens beside me. Through it, my characters, Uriah, Makkedah, Ring, and Cephus stare at me.

Makkedah: "We heard you weren't doing too well..."

I turn over, looking away from them.

Uriah: "It's that bad, eh?"

Ring: "Tell us what happened, Rimig."

Cephus: "Yeah, man. We're listening."

Me: "Back in January, I reread my first book, The Inglorious River. I thought my biggest issues with it were going to be some plot points I had since rethought, but no...it was a bunch of punctuation and spelling errors that I let slip through."

Me: "I recently started reading through my second book, The Tainted Ruins, for review. I hope that it would be better overall, but again, no. It's got plenty of spelling and punctuation errors, different lines are strung together, and...grr! I'm so embarrassed!"

U: "There, there..."

Me: "Part of it was because I didn't check thoroughly enough for errors in what I wrote, but the other part is the spelling and grammar 'fixes' my publishing company made. They made changes that were intended to fix errors, but they instead made more." I pause. "But I'm not blaming them. It was my job to review their changes and make adjustments. They encouraged me to do that, even. I thought I did a good job of that, but no...now my first two books are filled with errors that every reader and their mother will pick up on. And whose name is on the cover? Mine..."

All is silent for the next few seconds. My characters stare at me wordlessly until Cephus speaks up.

C: "Do you remember the time Sabtechai gave me, Uriah, and Makkedah fourth wall awareness?"

Me: "Yeah..."

R: "I wasn't there. What happened?"

U: "We all learned we were fictional, which sent me into an existential crisis."

Ma: "And not just that, Sabtechai pointed out the mistakes Rimig had made while writing. She really tore into his work."

Me: "Yeah, don't remind me..."

C: "But do you know who didn't give in to despair? It was our own writer, Rimigafob."

Me: "..."

U: "He owned all of his mistakes, and assured us that even with all of that, we had worth."

Ma: *Turns to me* "You taught us to believe in ourselves and to always keep moving forward, no matter how many mistakes we made, no matter how big or small they were."

Me: *Smiles* "Did I really say all that?"

U: "Maybe it didn't happen exactly like that, but it's still something we want you to know."

R: "You made some mistakes, some of them big mistakes, but it's not over. You can always learn and grow."

Me: "...thank, guys. I guess I'd better get back on writing!"

The portal closes before I get up to grab my computer from another room.

After I leave, another portal opens, featuring Kenan the badger.

Kenan: "Hey guys, remember the time we...!"

He notices that the room is empty, save for my cat, Nala.

K: "The nerve of those guys!" he says to her. "They're the main cast of the first two books and they think they're the only ones who get to do anything! I'll show them!"

K: "Yeah, all those spelling issues and mistakes they just talked about? My book won't have any of those! It's gonna be the best book Rimigafob has ever written, just you wait!"

Nala: *Stares* "...meow."

K: "Yeah, you get it!"

***

So as you might have pieced together from the skit, I let an uncomfortable amount of spelling and punctuation errors slip through into my first two books. Whether they were brought about by me or the publishing company, I don't care. I take full responsibility for all of them, and I promise to improve in this area, starting with my third book, The Destroyed Country, which will be released soon.

After I read The Inglorious River, I went to work making sure my third book wouldn't have the same issues, going through the edit my publishing company gave me. It took more time, but in the end, I made sure my upcoming book will be my best one yet! I'll be focusing my marketing efforts on it in the future.

On top of that, I've also contacted my publishing company about fixing the errors in my published books. It does cost a fair amount of money, but it's still something I want to consider. And when my contract with them expires, I plan to re-publish my books on Amazon, with most if not all of the mistakes I made fixed.

If you're a seasoned fan of mine, then thank you so much for the support! And if you're a newcomer, then welcome to my blog, and please, let me know how I can improve in my writing!