Still Proofing!
Yes, still hard at it—and fell 12 pages short of my target for yesterday. That is because I found stuff—like repetition: of words, sure (the same word used 3 times in the same paragraph—I ask you!); but in one instance exactly the same phrase had been used on sequential pages. How can that still be there, I wondered …
I have also found a couple of continuity errors. Yes, real ones, including a character—whom we shall call ‘Redshirt Y’—who was ‘done for’ in Part 2 but resurfaced in Part 4. Very, very tricky. Needless to say, ‘Redshirt Y’ has now transformed into ‘Redshirts ‘X’ and ‘Y’ ‘, but this process did require some careful tweaking.
And I caught a character who is supposed to know the environment they are in like the back of their hand, asking someone for directions. For reasons of plot convenience, of course, but truly, such glitches, once detected, cannot be countenanced!
And this, dear friends, is why we proof: because after several drafts, the edit round, and the copyedit process, these things are still in there, lurking, and waiting to disconcert the puir, unsuspecting reader!
Wish me luck for hitting ‘page target–plus 12’ today!
Good luck Helen, and thanks for taking all this care.
As a future ‘Gathering’ reader, I’m grateful 🙂
Also, this is a fascinating insight into this whole process for your non-writing readers, thanks for the updates and I hope today throws up less surprises!
Luck. Aren’t the repetitions a pain, though? It happens to all of us…
For this book I’m considering timelines for each character, just to keep track of all the ins and outs. (Ie – this one dies here. This one marries here. Don’t mix up the two!)
Good luck for target reaching!
Thanks for all the positives, guys. It’s always a matter of plugging away with this kind of intensive detail stuff, I feel.
But timelines, Mary–I do those too, especially for time related aspects of the story (surprise!), as well as for events in characters lives/stories …
Rebecca, I’m glad you appreciate it all (as a future GATHERING reader 😉 )–I do ‘do it for the books’ so they’re as right as they can be, which I guess is indirectly for the Muses (‘that they may be kind!’), readers, and my own sense of ‘if a job’s worth doing …’
Anyways, got through about 60 pages today, so if I can do the same again today and Saturday, I’ll be all done!