Yesterday, Liz's guest blogger Melanie Atkins talked about how great technology is but how it can cause spelling mishaps. I loved the post, and it was so ironic because that's similar to what I'd planned to post today, so I'll go ahead with it.
Like Melanie, I love Find and Replace, and I've had some really bizarre words pop up in edits because I did a "replace all" or was going too fast and replaced a word I shouldn't have. But my real pet peeve is my iPhone. I suppose I could turn off the feature where the phone thinks it knows what you're trying to say before you say it, but sometimes it comes in handy. SOMETIMES IT DOESN'T.
I mentioned last week that I had a terrible computer virus that had me offline for several days. I hate emailing on my iPhone. Something about that little screen and I keep bumping the wrong letter. It drives me crazy. But with no email, I was forced to use my iPhone, until it started screwing up too, but that's another story.
So I was trying to type an email to Kari, asking her to post to one of our loops that I would be out of touch because I had a computer virus. Well, I misspelled "computer", and my phone in its wisdom decided I actually meant to say, "cooter". After that first second of horror, I laughed until I cried. I would have died if I'd sent the message off saying, "I'll be out of touch for a while because I have a cooter virus." How my iPhone could think I meant "cooter" is beyond me, but I could have easily sent it that way if I hadn't done that final proofread. It isn't always easy to spot the mistakes, especially if you've been looking at the same manuscript (or email...or blog) for a long time.
When I got my copy edits for Embrace the Highland Warrior the copy editor thought I had made a mistake by attributing a line of dialog to the wrong character, so she changed it, thinking she was helping. But I hadn't made a mistake. She did. It was an honest mistake, and I can see where she got confused, but those things are hard to spot because it wasn't a misspelling.
On the same manuscript, I had a beta reader catch a couple of errors that both myself and the copy editor missed. I had looked right over them, and she did too. I guess we needed Kari editing for us. Our M&M gal isn't just a fabulous author, but she is a brilliant freelance editor as well. So bottom line, Proofread,people, proofread! (I bet I have a ton of typos in this blog).
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12 comments:
LOL Anita....thanks for the laugh...cooter??? snort.
And yeah, NONE of us can spot errors in our own work! Thanks for the editing plug. I'm having a lot of fun doing that on the side :-)
Details are on my website if anyone is interested.
Happy reading and writing all!
Anita, you are so so so right. I often read my work so many times that even the mistakes sound right. Plus, I keep checking the right spelling for words in Italian. It's a no win situation.
Kari, thank goodness you're on our side. We need you!
Kari, I'm glad you're having fun with your editing on the side. I think it's easier to edit someone else's work.
Cassy, you're so right. When we see those words day after day, the errors become invisible. We know what's SUPPOSED to be there so our brains gloss over the errors. It really helps me to step away from the manuscript for a while.
Cooter virus? Is that something you need a penicillin shot for???
And I agree about not catching errors. LIVER LET DIE went through several beta readers, my agent, my editor, my copy-editor, me again and it wasn't until the ARC arrived that I noticed a glaring mistake ALL of us had missed.
Fortunately, it wasn't too late to change it.
So, all of us really need to pay special attention to editing, especially on self-pubbed books. That's where Kari's expertise can be invaluable.
Just last week, a doctor shared her frustration with her cell phone, which insists on correcting the spelling of her name. She has not figured out the dictionary feature yet, assuming there is one.
An author who handles those inevitable mistakes gracefully:
http://www.kaitlyndunnett.com/bloopers.html
Seems everyone is subject to errors of one kind or another. A friend sent me this link that goes so well with this blog Anita and the one yesterday.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2011/sep/12/shift-typo-romantic-novel-susan-andersen
Lindsay, I've tried to write "the shot..." and accidentally subsituted an "i" for the "o". And there have been other words. At least they didn't get published. :)
Liz V., I'm going to see if there is a setting on the phones that stops the auto correct function. But it really comes in handy at times, so I may just leave it alone. Thanks for the link. I loved reading it. I guess this happens to all of us.
Liz, LOL. I wish I could've given my computer, like in the backyard with a Glock.
We know where the virus came from. It was bizarre. One of my son's friends told him that he was on a youtube video. The video said "caleb Clenney does something incredible, you have to see this." Or something like that, and it had tons of comments on the video from his friends. But the video wouldn't open. The first friend comment was "You have to upgrade your Adobe flash to view this, but it's worth it." When we upgraded the flash, it immediately removed our virus protection and wouldn't let us reinstall it. So the "upgrade suggestion" was a virus in disguise, like my demons in disguise. We had to call Norton and pay them to remove it and reload. This was very sneaky.
Austin is good with computers.
Anyway, the frightening thing is that this virus grabbed names from our computer, obviously it must have gotten them from Caleb's facebook page. This was an incredibly personalized thing. I'd love to get my hands on these jerks. I'd probably be sitting in a cell somewhere instead of worrying about writing another book.
Anita, If you get your hands on the jerks, just plead 'mother's rage'. That should get you off with a stern warning.
That's right, Lindsay. It infuriates me. If I had paid attention to the comment, "you have to upgrade but it's worth it", I probably would have been suspicious, but I didn't notice it. I've had viruses before, but nothing so devious that it used the names of people you know in the scheme. Scary!
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