A friend of mine – who shall remain nameless – told me about a typo in my newest book. I sighed. I try for zero errors, honestly, but sometimes things slip through. If you’ve read my blog posts on the subject, you’ll know that I believe most errors start and at the end of the writer’s fingertips.
Taking off my writer hat and putting on my reader hat. (I was tempted to use words like chapeau and beret but that would have been too, too cute.)
I started downloading a series of four books published in the 90s that were recommended on a website I was browsing. The first book was really good, interesting, different, and enough of an impetus to pick up the second and the third.
I’ve never written a continuity series, which features one set of characters throughout the whole series. The Highland Lords series was challenging enough to write, because I had to ensure Gilmuir was consistent through the books and that the family history was correct. I had extensive notes and folders and index cards. There were tabs on my OneNote files. I always checked and re-checked.
Reading this series – I’m on the third book now – has proven to be a little difficult. Nobody’s staying the same.
For example:
- Book 1, the hero is “tall”.
- Book 2, the hero is 6′3″
- Book 3, osteoporosis has struck and he’s now 6′2″.
Or:
- Book 2, hero’s father is a Bird Colonel (Lt. Col.)
- Book 2, a few pages onward, the Lt. Col. is bucking for General. Nope. You have to be a Colonel first, then a Brig. Gen. (Yes, my daddy was a BG).
- Book 2, a few pages after that, the Lt. Col. has become a Major. Huh?
Or:
- Book 1, the hero’s son is two years old when he dies.
- Book 3, the hero’s son is six months old when he dies.
Given that I also make mistakes, it causes me wonder if I’m being too picky. But characters are important to me, more than plot, more than scenery descriptions, more than beautiful prose. Characters are the core of the story.
These errors are enough to drag me out of the story, throw me on the ground, and pummel me.
What about you? Do you think I’m being too picky? Or do continuity errors drive you bonkers, too?
I received the editorial letter for my last book (being published in 2010) and squinted at it as I normally do. I have to ease into reading the whole thing. The letter was curiously short. Bravely, I started reading my editor’s comments. She’d been succinct but I wasn’t getting it. Slowly, I started reading the whole thing from beginning to end. When I’d finished, I was a little numb.
My entire thought process went something like this:
- Holy cow, I got off easy.
- What do you mean, deepen?
- Huh?
I had gotten to one of those sentences that editors can utter that strike terror into the hearts of writers – The editor’s understatement. Examples:
- I really don’t like the hero’s family dynamic. (Since he’s the youngest of six brothers, this poses a problem.)
or
- I’d like to see the heroine have more experience. (Since she’s the daughter of a vicar and has been living as a recluse, this might be a little difficult.)
or
- Can you make the antagonist from England instead of France? (Well, since the entire plot hinges around the fact that he’s French, that’s going to be a challenge.)
The editorial comment she’d made about this book was as difficult. In other words, to do what she suggested would mean that I would really have to change some things in the book. I didn’t understand how much work was involved but by page 5, I was beginning to understand. By page 30, I knew I had a problem. I was really going to have to re-write whole sections of the book.
Holy cow, indeed.
But I trusted her, accepted it as a challenge, got to work, and started writing and re-writing. Bottom line, when the book was finished I realized something.
She was absolutely right.
I’d loved the book before but her criticism made it better. Her comments – a total of twenty-eight words – had resulted in a re-write of over 10,000 words.
Talk about understatement!
For those of you who shop online:
And to the intrepid among us, who go to the mall:
For some reason, I’ve added a ton of writing blogs to my Google Reader so when I’m in the mood, I prowl through thoughts of my fellow writers. They run the gamut, from writing mystery to romance to poetry to suspense.
Sometimes, I’m a little amused by these blogs. They rarely mention commerce. I suspect that some of them are almost embarrassed to mention that their writings are for sale, or that their deep, inspired thoughts are on the market.
We’re bards. We’re story-tellers. At one time, we would have been queued outside the castle door, vying for a position in front of the king’s table, hoping to amuse enough to be thrown a couple of coins and bones. Or we would have been seated around a campfire, enthralling a group with tales of faraway countries for the price of a night’s lodging and a meal for our empty stomachs.
We’re doing the same thing now, but it’s $7.99 we want. Just $7.99 and we’ll keep you entertained, not once, but hopefully over and over. You’ll re-read our words, talk about them with other people, sigh over the stories we’ve told. We’ll take you to a faraway land and introduce you to strangers you’ll come to know and, hopefully, learn to like and love.
What’s embarrassing about that?
Aww, my house smells so much like Thanksgiving already.
I burned the squash.
The cranberries exploded on the stove. I should have thought ahead and purchased a red stove.
The green beans are okay, but the mushrooms are a bit singed.
I dropped the pie on the floor. Emergency phone call: “Honey, when you pick up the turkey today from the restaurant (from whence it comes cooked, thank the merciful God), could you also pick up a pie?”
One batch of rolls came out okay. One didn’t.
Yes, I do as much stuff before Thanksgiving as I can, so the smell of smoke has left the house by the time we eat.
I am not the world’s worst cook, but I’m in the top 10.
- Books, reading, Kindle
- The family of silly squirrels that amuses me daily
- Rich, bold coffee
- Pecans
- Blueberries
- Emails from people who have dropped out of my life – how fun to have them IN again!
- The little yellow cat that comes to terrorize my birds and checks on me by peering in my office window every morning
- Thunderstorms
- Long hot showers
- The feeling AFTER I exercise
- Comfy shoes
- Dark, sinful chocolate
- Flowers from friends
- A computer that works perfectly
- Technology that speeds up stuff I hate to do. Now, if I could only have a robot to vacuum and clean, please. Oh, and do laundry.
- Scotland the Brave, the CD. Magnificent music to lift the spirits
- The new book that is finally coming together. Love the characters.
- Sunsets from my office window (just a hint of how hard working I am – LOL)
- The fact that my hair grows fast. I’ve just gotten the worst haircut in a long time, and to make matters worse, I “trimmed” my bangs. Gag.
- The surprising – and beautiful – silver necklace my son gave me (and it’s not even Christmas!)
- Homemade yogurt
- Being alive – without which, none of the preceding would happen!
Care to share what you’re thankful for?
Something struck me the other day. I realized that a character had come alive.
It was a profound moment, one that made me stare at the screen. He’d said something to another character and – voila! – there he was, three dimensional and real. I can tell you the exact sentence. Because of his quickening, I’ll need to go back to earlier parts of the book and make sure he’s alive there, too.
The quickening of this character made me think back to when other characters have come alive. I realized – as I never have before – that I could tell you when each character became real to me. It’s never the same time, and sometimes it’s not at the beginning of the book, either. At times, you need to know more about a person before you can say you understand him. I think it’s the same with characters.
What I found odd was that this dramatic revelation came to me as I was writing book number thirty-five.
Yesterday, I saw a commercial for an outlet mall not far from San Antonio. The first 500 people to come to the mall at Midnight on Thanksgiving Day WITH THEIR PAJAMAS ON will get a prize.
OMG!
Can you just imagine what that might be like? Can you imagine the kinds of pajamas people will be wearing? Hint: it’s not cold enough to wear a coat, so we’re talking pajamas and maybe, just maybe, a robe.
The world is not ready to see me in my jammies. I’m not ready to go shopping in my jammies, either.
So, what do you think? Would you go shopping in your jammies?
