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Silly Mistakes in Book Drafts
message 51:
by
Marja
(new)
Mar 07, 2014 12:12PM
I changed a car to a truck, and a flashlight to a lantern, in about two pages. There are some days I should stay away from the computer. : )
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I'm not sure I'll EVER catch all the grey/gray inconsistencies. I'm pretty sure since I'm American it's supposed to be gray, but for some reason I've always spelled it "grey". I'm probably too old to change.
Marja wrote: "I changed a car to a truck, and a flashlight to a lantern, in about two pages. There are some days I should stay away from the computer. : )"Marja, I know just how you feel. Some days are good for writing and others for editing. And then there are those "special" days when all I seem to do is make a mess. That's when I know it's time to back off.
I will admit, though, it's cathartic to confess to some of my silly mistakes here!
I just noticed that an in a very late draft, I had someone be a bicyclist coming toward the protagonist and a jogger leaving. Not quite sure why he abandoned his bike....
Susan wrote: "Marja wrote: "I changed a car to a truck, and a flashlight to a lantern, in about two pages. There are some days I should stay away from the computer. : )"Marja, I know just how you feel. Some da..."
It's therapeudic to just to write. The mistakes only make it more interesting, and fun.
Susan wrote: "Marja wrote: "I changed a car to a truck, and a flashlight to a lantern, in about two pages. There are some days I should stay away from the computer. : )"Marja, I know just how you feel. Some da..."
It's therapeudic to just to write. The mistakes only make it more interesting, and fun.
Tracy wrote: "I just noticed that an in a very late draft, I had someone be a bicyclist coming toward the protagonist and a jogger leaving. Not quite sure why he abandoned his bike...."He was obviously participating in a "ride and tie" event. In a few minutes,a runner will come along, take up the bike, and ride off in pursuit.
It's amazing the things readers will comment on in your books. The main character in my series is a woman named Caroline. She has two daughters, Kerry and Krista. Every once in a while, Caroline's friends call her by the shortened version of her name, Cari. Well, one reader commented in a review that she found the names Cari and Kerry confusing because they sounded the same. I never even thought of that when I was naming the characters. To me, it was easy to see the difference in the spelling and know which character was speaking. The reader who made the comment really took me to task on it, though. She was quite upset about it in her review of the book. :)
That's something that's easy to miss--but I listen to a lot of my books, so I am sensitive to sound-alikes. I wouldn't have an issue with it in print, and why shouldn't a mother and daughter have similar names? --but it CAN lead to confusion.
Rebecca wrote: "That's something that's easy to miss--but I listen to a lot of my books, so I am sensitive to sound-alikes. I wouldn't have an issue with it in print, and why shouldn't a mother and daughter have ..."I agree, it can be really difficult sometimes. I suppose I 'hear' the words I read off the page, so when characters have names that sound too close to one another, I start getting confused about which one is which.
Speaking about names...I'm working on a draft now where one of my characters has the last name of Brooks. I needed a name for his son, so I called him Melvin. See the problem? I'm wondering if I should change it or make a joke out of it. "No, not THAT Mel Brooks."
I think you should make a joke out of Mel Brooks...although depending on the age of your reader they may not get it.
Tracy wrote: "I just noticed that an in a very late draft, I had someone be a bicyclist coming toward the protagonist and a jogger leaving. Not quite sure why he abandoned his bike...."this gave me a good chuckle this morning!
I love reading all of these
❂ Jennifer (reviews on BookLikes) wrote: "Rebecca wrote: "That's something that's easy to miss--but I listen to a lot of my books, so I am sensitive to sound-alikes. I wouldn't have an issue with it in print, and why shouldn't a mother an..."
Unfortunately, I can't change the name now because there are already five books in the series. :) But I certainly will remember not to do that again in future books.
Unfortunately, I can't change the name now because there are already five books in the series. :) But I certainly will remember not to do that again in future books.
Beverly wrote: "Speaking about names...I'm working on a draft now where one of my characters has the last name of Brooks. I needed a name for his son, so I called him Melvin. See the problem? I'm wondering if I sh..."I have a Sharon Stone who's a reporter in some of my books. Make a joke out of it and have fun.
I agree -- make it a joke. Most people will know who Mel Brooks, or they'll be so curious that they'll Google his name and find out! :)
Leslie aka StoreyBook Reviews wrote: "I always wonder how authors keep all of their characters straight! I'm reading a book now (not a mystery) and there are so many people and I'm not sure how they all connect, at least not yet!"Hi Leslie,
When a book has a large cast it isn't easy keeping track of each character. Now I create a biography complete with physical/psychological profile for each primary character. Extra work that, for the most part, doesn't make it into the text, but helps me keep everyone distinct and avoid the blue eyes in chapter one that turn brown by chapter eight!
I've taken to making lists of every character who is even mentioned, with at least their affiliations, so I know who all the students are, who's the old crank, etc. Otherwise I get to spend lots of time combing previous chapters (or previous books) figuring it out!
Leslie aka StoreyBook Reviews wrote: "I always wonder how authors keep all of their characters straight! I'm reading a book now (not a mystery) and there are so many people and I'm not sure how they all connect, at least not yet!"I've tried all sorts of systems and keep coming back to index cards. Every character has a card with key details on it, and they're filed in a card box that I've been using for one project or another for the past thirty years.
Rebecca wrote: "I've taken to making lists of every character who is even mentioned, with at least their affiliations, so I know who all the students are, who's the old crank, etc. Otherwise I get to spend lots o..."
Until I read your comment I hadn't realized the characters I hadn't made cards for. And just this morning I wasted a half hour flipping through book #1 looking for the name of Miss Abigail's late husband. (It's George. He now has a card of his own, even though he departed this world many years before the book...)
LOL, Susan! Yeah, I figured it out halfway through the second Ninja Librarian book, as I was trying to figure out names and ages for all the children in town, and how did I spell their names, and. . . If it was that bad with only two short books, what would I do when I had a real series?
Realizing that all of my female characters all had green eyes :-S. Oops!
I'm working on book #7 of a series (Maggie McGill) and I can tell you that keeping it all straight only becomes more challenging.Still, after all, it's what we do and we love it! Right?
That's OK. My Granddaughter has green eyes, and I LOVE her green eyes and reddish hair.:-)
Mod
Thanks to you all for the interesting and seriously amusing bloopers. A very enjoyable read for me.
MissJessie--former librarian wrote: "Thanks to you all for the interesting and seriously amusing bloopers. A very enjoyable read for me."Always glad to oblige ;)
I might be destined for a spot at Hogwarts. This morning I turned a cat into a dog in Chapter 23.
Hey, congrats, Susan--that's big magic!
I'm currently reading an ARC where the lead character left work early on Monday and ended up visiting his girlfriend on the same day, but now it is SUNDAY! I hope this error got caught before publishing.
☯Emily has reviews on Booklikes wrote: "I'm currently reading an ARC where the lead character left work early on Monday and ended up visiting his girlfriend on the same day, but now it is SUNDAY! I hope this error got caught before publ..."Emily, I hope you can drop a line to the author or editor!
Susan wrote: "I might be destined for a spot at Hogwarts. This morning I turned a cat into a dog in Chapter 23."ROFLOL - I do so appreciate reading all of these, always good for a chuckle. and at least you caught it!
Rebecca wrote: "Hey, congrats, Susan--that's big magic!"Thanks, Rebecca! I'm going to need some big magic to power through the rest of this draft if I hope to stay on deadline. Wonder if there's a spell for that? {grin}
Leslie aka StoreyBook Reviews wrote: "ROFLOL - I do so appreciate reading all of these, always good for a chuckle..."
Glad we keep you laughing, Leslie!
I wrote custardy instead of custody, because everything's better with custard.
And a custard(y) fight would be much more entertaining, and satisfying, than a custody fight.
I"m forever changing character names, especially when I realize they sound too much like other names. In my latest mystery, I'm having fun using the names of my family members and writers' group, except when I realize I've used the same one more than once.Because my publisher uses a "print on demand" service, I've been able to make changes when readers point them out. I haven't pushed this too far, as nothing is free in any business.
I think the biggest one I'm still guilty of is changing a characters occupation or changing the behavior of the character as if they had a completely different occupation.
Thanks everyone for sharing. Very educational.
Thanks everyone for sharing. Very educational.
Thanks for reviving this discussion, Misty!Our indie bookstore hosted local authors this weekend and in between customers we had fun confessing our silly mistakes!
When I began writing fiction, I didn't work with timelines. What a mistake. In early drafts I had characters doing things they wouldn't have done because they'd discovered the danger several chapters before. Or being surprised at meeting someone the first time when the two had already met.
Sometimes there are too many characters, and the author can clean it up by eliminating "throwaway" characters...those that only appear once and do nothing to advance the story. Another pitfall is having too many characters with similar names, particularly if the book goes to audio. I just listened to one where the protagonist and the bad guy had such similar names it was difficult to determine who was saying or doing what. I always do character profiles and give them something that is distinctive to help keep them straight. A CORPSE IN THE SOUPLeslie aka StoreyBook Reviews wrote: "I always wonder how authors keep all of their characters straight! I'm reading a book now (not a mystery) and there are so many people and I'm not sure how they all connect, at least not yet!"
I definitely have to check and double-check who knew what when! In my current WIP I'm finding the MC doing things more than once!
Just found this typo in my draft:"He pooped the last dumpling into Lindsay's mouth."
Ew. Really not what I was going for.
Rebecca wrote: "I'm not sure I'll EVER catch all the grey/gray inconsistencies. I'm pretty sure since I'm American it's supposed to be gray, but for some reason I've always spelled it "grey". I'm probably too ol..."Hi Rebecca, I know I'm coming to this late but if you use MS Word you can set it up to auto-correct this for you. You can make it change gray to grey always (I prefer to grey too).
True! And I could (and probably should) do a search for "grey". Or for 'gray.' I don't think it really matters, as long as I'm consistent, right?
Today while writing the second book in my series, I found myself doing the calculations of ages of various characters in my head...I felt like I was doing those word puzzles from math class:If Joey was 4 when when the last book took place (six months ago), and Joey is 12 years younger than Izzy, then how old is Izzy today?
But what if Joey had a birthday in the last 6 months, so Joey would be 5, but Izzy, if she hadn't had her birthday would still be 16...
And at that point I decided at (a) I needed to start writing these things down (including birthdays of MCs) so I don't start getting their ages wrong and (b) I needed another cup of coffee.
LOL! The hazards of writing a series!
Mod
"He pooped the last dumpling into Lindsay's mouth."
Ew. Really not what I was going for."
That's hilarious. Glad you caught it and thanks for sharing.
When you find a mistake like that, you know why you pay for a proofreader. Some errors you REALLY don't want to let slip through!
Mindy wrote: "Just found this typo in my draft:"He pooped the last dumpling into Lindsay's mouth."
Ew. Really not what I was going for."
No, but you sure gave me my laugh for the day.
No matter how much you proofread, there's going to be a typo or two. In my new short story (thankfully not a published draft) one of my friends found a "book singing" instead of book signing. Many readers had gone through the story and none had caught it!
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Books mentioned in this topic
A CORPSE IN THE SOUP (other topics)Ripoff (other topics)
God Save the Queen! (other topics)
The Ninja Librarian (other topics)
