{"id":43587,"date":"2026-01-29T13:57:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T00:57:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/?p=43587"},"modified":"2026-01-29T13:57:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T00:57:16","slug":"inside-the-writing-life-hunting-infelicities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/2026\/01\/29\/inside-the-writing-life-hunting-infelicities\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside the Writing Life: Hunting Infelicities"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Monday<\/strong><\/a>, I mentioned plugging gaps and tweaking infelicities, and it occurred to me (later) that readers may be interested in what an \u201cinfelicity\u201d looks like — to me anyway. (I can\u2019t speak for other authors, although I\u2019m sure there are overlaps. :D)<\/p>\n

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From this …<\/p><\/div>\n

By way of examples, the first and obvious contenders are typos, grammatical errors<\/strong>, and missed words<\/strong>. Small stuff, but they still affect the reader experience.<\/p>\n

Closely followed by repetition<\/strong>, from the smaller stuff (fourteen instances of the use of \u201cdark\u201d or \u201cdarkness\u201d on one page — that was in HEIR), to larger sections of material repeated within a chapter, which was something that cropped up yesterday. Repetition can also include repeating ideas or plot points, particularly in close proximity, even where the wording used is different.<\/p>\n

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… to this …<\/p><\/div>\n

An infelicity hunt also includes a keen watch for expository lumps<\/strong> a la Ursula Le Guin (conveying necessary information, but too much en masse) and word salads<\/strong> — those sentences or paragraphs that comprise nice words in a pleasant order, but are largely \u201ccontent free.\u201d (I know, I know, the latter are the rightful purview of politicians. \ud83d\ude09 But they can<\/em> creep into books, too, if the author is not vigilant.)<\/p>\n

Continuity errors<\/strong> and consistency<\/strong> are also in the mix, i.e. where a character has said or done something in one place, or worn or used something, or had a realization — but later it\u2019s as if that either didn\u2019t happen, or the subsequent action directly contradicts it. So I like to weed those out wherever I spot them.<\/p>\n

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… then back to this …<\/p><\/div>\n

Needless to say, I do try not<\/em> to commit any of these infelicities when I write, but the faster I go, or the more tired I am, the more likely they are to rear their unwelcome heads. I also tried to pick them up in the recently completed Revision phase — but the focus of that was the overall story and characters, and other Big Stuff, which is why I’m having another hunt for the smaller stuff now. Sweating it even, one might say. \ud83d\ude00<\/p>\n

You may also be thinking, \u201cIsn\u2019t finding such things the editorial team\u2019s job?\u201d And it is — but I believe it\u2019s also everyone\u2019s job, including mine, because there is always<\/em> something that slips through. So the more eyes and minds on the manuscript, the less slip-through’s are likely to occur.<\/p>\n

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And one day<\/a> this\u00a0 — it’s a continuum.:)<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Monday, I mentioned plugging gaps and tweaking infelicities, and it occurred to me (later) that readers may be interested in what an \u201cinfelicity\u201d looks like — to me anyway. (I can\u2019t speak for other authors, although I\u2019m sure there are overlaps. :D) By way of examples, the first and obvious contenders are typos, grammatical […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,50],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-about-what-im-doing","category-about-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43587","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43587"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43587\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43594,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43587\/revisions\/43594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}