I got a reminder this past week of how important it is to proofread a novel several times. I can read over the same thing three, four or five times before I catch an error. As it turns out, I can fix the error and still have a problem ...
I was reading over an action scene in the third novel. It's one of those scenes with a bunch of characters all moving at the same time, so I knew I had to keep careful track of who was doing what. I'd already mapped out the scene once before, but I apparently made some changes after that because when I read it this time, I realized something was wrong: I had someone appear out of thin air!
That's right. The scene takes place in a closed room and when I walked through the actions of the characters, I got one person too many. It was frustrating because I couldn't make it work the way it was written.
Time to rewrite.
I finally got out some colored paperclips and arranged them on a chair to visualize which character was where as I worked through the action. I think it works now, but I might put it aside and reread it in a few days to see if that's true.
And that's one of the reasons why I don't release a novel every few months! I can only imagine the stupid mistakes I'd find if I rushed through the process.
Speaking of stupid mistakes: the next time you have a few minutes, check out "Weird Al" Yankovic's video "Word Crimes." Even if you don't recognize the song it's based on (I didn't), it's a lot of fun. Grammar counts! Here's a link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Gv0H-vPoDc
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