Saturday, August 6, 2011

My typo, My enemy!

Well today I will tell you about a couple things that really get under my skin and wound me deeply.
The first is the typo. You know, the misspelled word, the wrong letter, the wrong word or the left out word. I guess they may not all be considered typos, but I lump them together. I mean you are trying to look and sound professional, to produce a quality product and bam, there it is the fly in the ointment, the scratch on your new car, the flaw in the diamond, and the very booger in your cheerios. All of a sudden what looked good gets tossed in the trash. Who wants a booger? Not me.
The thing that is worse is finding out about the typo when you have uploaded your work and the whole world can see it.(It's like taking a bite of them there cheerios only to have a sibling tell you what they added to it for your enjoyment) Not good, it shows a lack of quality control.
When I was in the Navy I volunteered for Submarine duty (I was in the Navy for 12 years and was on 3 different subs. If you thought I might be crazy, well that should remove all doubt). A submarine and her crew depend on quality to ensure survival. Things are checked and rechecked and the men (and Women now) who serve on them learn to appreciate the extra effort and learn to expect quality in every thing. Though I have been out of the navy since 1997, I still think of quality control and I try to maintain this in my writing. Well you may notice I slip up. (I did not while serving in the navy)
In The Last run it has been brought to my attention I made at least 2 errors (I was hit with a bad headache when I found out). The first was during a dinner scene, I used dinning instead of dining. (apparently the people at the table were subjecting each other to loud noises)
The second has to do with a rewrite. Originally I had Beth be Lord Aubrey's wife but I decided this was not right and did not fit well. I changed everything in the draft during the rewrite that referenced the two being married. One sentence "He will not tell my husband will he?" escaped my eagle eye. (Yeah right, without my glasses I am lucky to read anything more than 3 feet away.) I want to assure everyone this is an error that will be revised and a new version uploaded and when you sync your device the new version should replace the old one. (I hope)
Errors are irritating and I feel bad when I miss them, but I have noticed that quite a few books these days have one or two typos and these are from major publishers and are in print! Still I can not just let this go without correction.
The second thing has nothing to do with typos. It has everything to do with my obsession with checking my books ranking daily. It is driving me nuts so I am laying of this for awhile and taking things as they are. If they go up? Great! If they go down? it's all good.
Well I'll catch you later.

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