Odd editorial glitches

[Christian Soldier]

I figured I'd start a thread for when we find odd glitches in our own works, and what we did about them. I'll start with a story from my most current Mss. It seems that my main character, Sandra, went through no less than four other names during the writing of my Mss. She also went through two different hair styles. In my defense, or for state evidence, I didn't plan out this story much and am currently going back to check for consistency and to redraw plot lines to their obvious conclusion

[metalikhan]

Ah, true confession time.

I usually have my characters solidly in mind; but sometimes my settings go through strange contortions. Oh, where did I misplace that chain of islands? Was it east or west of the main continent? Which drawing of the map was I using for the story?

Where did that table come from? The room was empty two paragraphs ago. Make up your mind, girl.

Most of those kinds of glitches are resolved if I let what I wrote sit a few days and re-read with fresher eyes. Most. If something really bothers me about a scene but I can't find the problem, I ask my husband to take a look. He doesn't like fiction much, but he can spot inconsistencies and glitches very well.

The other glitch I'm guilty of happens with made-up words or language. Was it t'zarhn, t'sarhn, t'sharn, t'zahrn? And why did I add them all to the dictionary? How late was it when I was writing?

I was delighted to discover the Find and Replace feature on the writing program. Wish I'd known about it earlier!

[waldenwriter]

Find & Replace are very good functions indeed. I used the Find function recently with a school paper to check that the people I'd cited were listed in my bibliography.

The only "glitch" I have - if in fact it is one - is re-using the same names. This has been particularly a problem since I wrote a script for a comic, realized I couldn't make it a comic since I can't draw well, and tried to novelize it. I used the name Avalon Jacobs in one novel and then used it in another novel for a totally different character.

My stories when I was younger tended to have female protagonists consistently named either Jennifer or Jessica. I re-used Jack as a guy name a couple times too. Even though I bought a baby name book for reference, I still fall back on certain names for some reason. It's odd.

[JenLenaMom]

I wrote a short story spun off the Noah story and I spelled one character's name two different ways. One problem I have is that I CANNOT edit on the computer screen. I have to have paper and a pen in my hands to be able to see my own mistakes. Luckily for me one of my critiques groups caught the error and I went back and decided how I wanted to spell it and fix it before I submitted it to the ezine.

[kirstymca]

One way to find some editorial glitches is to get an illustrator - the kind who actually reads the text and tries to be accurate - to illustrate it, or at least read through it with a view to illustrating it. (and no, I'm not volunteering!)

I've come across a few anomalies in the course of illustrating things. For example the little boy who was leading a mammoth, with a hand over its mouth to stop it from squealing, while covering his own ears with his hands (to avoid hearing threats from the bad guys)! A boy with four hands?
Changes of clothes are easy to spot that way too.

[morganlbusse]

Mine was having the sun set over the ocean, only to realize the person was facing east (since I live on the western seaboard, that's what I'm used to seeing ;P)

[torainfor]

"I watched the proverbial sunrise
Coming up over the Pacific and
You might think I'm losing my mind,
But I will shy away from the specifics..."

Great. Now it's stuck in my head. (Actually, that song came out when I lived in Hawaii, so I didn't have too much trouble with it.)

My story's on a planet that spins the opposite way as Earth. I use east and west, but I still haven't gone through and figured out which way is east and which is west.

Most of mine have to do with time. I just realized my protagonist was having Thanksgiving dinner--in February.

[fluke]

Working on a story where a character was at one point standing in the middle of the room then walked over to the window to talk to the POV char (important fact: she's a sea elf (mermaid) and can turn her tail into legs; she's a follower of the Elven Way* so a green skirt comes with the deal). Next thing I typed, she was sitting by the other wall splashing her tail in the water. :groan:

Correcting it was just analyzing the scene to see if there was more impact from Cynthia being seated the whole time or moving around. Decided it was better with her walking.

[tris]

The worst one I read in a published author's work with recurring characters...the police chief's wife had different names in the series, with no mention that he might have switched wives. Fortunately it wasn't in the same book. But the first several books called her by one name and the last couple gave her a different name with no explanation!

[Christian Soldier]

I've done most of those as well, sadly. I'm usually good about not adding variants of a made up name or word... usually. As for the rest...*raises hand* guilty. That's what editing is for.

Recently, I've realized that my novel is where I need the first one to be. Now I need to go back and add muscle to the bones. Sadly, that's all it is right now.

[morganlbusse]

But your almost done CS, and that's great! I find writing the first rough draft hard: its the editing and revision I love (I dangle those like a carrot in front of my nose to get me to finish my rough drafts, and I'm not allowed to edit until I've finished the entire manuscript... or at least most of it ;P).

[Teskas]

Morwena, are you serious that you don't edit until your entire first draft is finished? I'm intrigued. How does it work for you? Do you only outline scenes in each chapter, or do you actually write them up?

[morganlbusse]

I piece of advise I once read was to just keep writing until you were done with the entire manuscript (no looking back). Being the compulsive perfectionist I was, I would always keep going back and "fixing" things... and therefore would probably never finish my manuscript. So a couple months ago I got serious about finishing and took that piece of advise to heart. I wrote everyday for an hour or two when my kids napped and made myself keep going, even when I saw all the flaws in my first draft.

As far as outlines, I have a mental map of where I'm going, key events that need to happen in my story. Its just a matter of fleshing it out on paper... something that can be difficult for me. But once its there, I love going back and adding, tweaking it until it reads just like I imagined inside my mind. But to force myself to finish, I don't allow myself the "tweaking" part until the entire manuscript is done (now I do read what I wrote the day before and change anything I see that I don't like, but I don't linger long, I move on).

For anyone else who struggles with going back and "fixing" and find they hardly ever move forward, I would challenge them to try this method. There were times I thought I would never finish my story as I stared at the screen, trying to pull the story from my mind, sometimes only writing a paragraph a day. But it worked. I am officially finishing my last chapter right now (after five years of writing, rewriting, revising, and learning the craft of writing). Hooray!

Now I'll admit, as I came near the end, I needed to go back and rework my MC and decided to get all my editing and revising done at that point, so I only have a couple chapters that need cleaned up. But it feels so good to finally be done!

I plan on starting my next book in a week or two and am going to try this method out in its entirety on the manuscript (again, I have an outline, now I will write it out without looking back). So we'll see if it really practical from start to finish ;P

[torainfor]

That's pretty much what I do. Write straight through until I finish the first draft. Although, the last two books have had several POVs and storylines, so sometimes I need to go back and get refreshed on both the "voice" and the story line! If something needs tweaking, I'll do it.

But, I've found that although the bad guys are a major player throughout, I don't seem to be able to write their parts until after everything is finished. I don't know what that means.

As I've mentioned before, to make sure I have the names consistent, I put them in the footer. Then they're there when I need them.

[Christian Soldier]

I'll tell you what I've done reccently: I printed the whole thing out. Yep! Your tax dollars at work... and mine. The reason why is that the first four hours of my shift, I'm not allowed to have my laptop at work anymore, so I printed it out to make notes on. What I didn't anticipate is how good it feels to hold it in my hands. Fifty pages filled with my words and thoughts. Fifty pages, over twenty seven thousand words. I've never gotten this far. Now I need to flesh it out, make it real. I have several chapters to add and finish before I can begin the act of final editing.

True, it may still be too short, but I can write the second half of the novel while editing the first. First, though, I hav eto finish my correspondence courses to help with my promotion. Oh yes.