I was recently asked by a young writer to review the first
pages of her new story and offer her some tips. When she prefaced the request
with a flattering remark along the lines of wanting to use my advice to make
her as good as me, there was no way I could resist.
The first page from this writer’s story was a disclaimer
that she doesn’t have an editor and readers should expect mistakes in the story.
Not only should readers expect them, but we should forgive them because she’s
only human. I found this to be off putting for a few reasons.
I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve been asked to read
and offer input on stories which are publicly posted chock full of mistakes. Of
course, many of the works I read are from young writers who are learning their
craft. It’s unreasonable to expect perfection, especially when it’s not always
modeled in the e-books they’re reading. I’ve read a number of self-published
books of late that are swimming with mistakes. As an adult writer, and a
self-published writer in particular, this is unforgivable.
When it comes to young writers, I always tell them to make
sure their editing is tight. I also stress that editing is more than proper
spelling. The best spell check in the world can’t help if see is spelled right
but the writer meant to use the word sea. Spell check also isn’t going to help
with proper punctuation. Sure, it will occasionally tell me I should be using
its instead of it’s, but it can’t tell me if a semi colon or comma is
appropriate. My spell check also isn’t going to catch bad grammar, at least not
overall. There are times when I intentionally use slang like gonna instead of
going to, and my spell check will put that red squiggly line under gonna, but
it’s not going to catch all of my butchering of the English language.
While young writers, or older ones for that matter, may not
see the importance of tight editing, there is value. I always say readers won’t
believe in a writer’s work if it’s riddled with mistakes. Even more important,
readers may lose interest in the work if they’re constantly being tripped up by
mistakes. This means they’re not only going to avoid reading your future works,
but they may be giving bad reviews in public forums or warning friends and
family off your work.
Don’t think readers won’t notice the occasional mistake
either. I’m here to tell you they do. I’ve experienced this first hand. Like
many fledgling writers, I don’t employ an editor. While I’d love to have an
editor, they don’t come cheap. Instead, I rely on my own eyes to catch things,
which isn’t always wise. In a chapter of my latest teen fiction story, I
inadvertently used the word principle when I meant principal. The ironic thing
is that as I was editing the chapter, my eyes kept going back to the word and
telling my brain something wasn’t quite right. Trouble was my brain wasn’t
listening. A reader caught it and pointed it out. I fixed it, but the damage
was done. I lost credibility with this reader. I also recently tagged a story
with the word amputee only in my haste, I wrote the word amutee. If you think
that went unnoticed, you’re wrong. I had a reader point out the misspelling. My
first reaction was to blow it off since this wasn’t part of the story, but I
realized the flaw in this logic. The tags are how readers search for stories
they want to read. No one is going to be searching for amutee which could cost
me potential readers.
Like it or not, readers are checking for and catching
mistakes. They expect a polished product, whether they’re reading a free e-book
that’s been posted online or whether it’s an actual printed book they’ve paid
money for. And you know what? Readers deserve that product and writers who want
to be taken seriously will give it to them.
Edit, edit, edit! I can’t say it enough.
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