Proofing and clunking
Thursday, January 14th, 2010 at 1:50 pmI’m not an eloquent person. I don’t have a great way with words. Sometimes I don’t have any way with words. And boy do I notice it when I’m correcting stuff I wrote weeks or months ago. It’s positively embarrassing to see the simple sentences I’ve screwed up. Oddly, it’s often the more complicated ones that I get right, so maybe the simpler ones and their errant commas and doubtful meanings get bypassed when I correct a story as a continuation of writing it, rather than taking a break.
Why am I writing this? Well, I have a story to correct, it needs lots of little fiddly adjustments, and I have to do it fast. So I’m running from not my worst nightmare, but certainly something that makes me wish there was a drug to make you very calm and very alert at the same time. And smart. Smart would be good.
January 14th, 2010 at 5:40 pm
I know exactly what you mean. I’m just glad i Have 5 people editing my work for all those little mistakes so i can go over my stuff at least every 2 days with corrections and amendments
January 15th, 2010 at 1:12 am
I’m not an eloquent person. I don’t have a great way with words.
Bullshit. I mean that in the nicest way possible *g*, but as far as your prose goes, words are your bitch. It may take you ten times to get them all lined up right (same problem here, ditto the screwing up the most simple of sentences repeatedly until I wonder how I ever managed to write, you know, whole BOOKS!), but hey, that’s why brilliant people are known for losing their keys and eyeglasses a dozen times a year. All the focus of those great brains goes somewhere else besides the minutiae. Maybe for you, the focus goes into the artistry of the prose, and not so much on the mechanics?
Me, I’m dyslexic. I can leave out not just single words, but entire sections of a sentence I’m typing, and when I go back to edit it, the gaps will be invisible to me. Often, I simply don’t see them, no matter how many times I painstakingly go over the sentence. I’ll think the missing section is there, but in reality my brain is seamlessly filling in what I fail to see. That sucks a lot, but I have ways of coping. I still have issues with blog posts, emails, etc, but luckily I have good friends who “speak Kirby” and make allowances. My editors (and I was a pro editor myself for years) always say my text is very clean when it’s sent in, and that there’s not a lot for them to correct. Shyeah. That’s because I’ve gone over it 20 times and had the computer read it back to me aloud first. Aurally, I miss nothing, but my visual… that’s another matter.
January 15th, 2010 at 3:55 pm
Colin – I only have 2 people editing my work. I feel depraved. I mean deprived.
Kirby – I’m selfishly glad to hear that I’m not the only writer who can’t always get simple sentences straight. I think I’m often trying to arrange the simple against the fancy and get them in the proportions I want — which sometimes just results in contortions. My brain doesn’t fill in stuff so much — not on a large scale — but it cheats and makes sense of things that really don’t make sense.
I’ve never noticed any missed words when you post here. For some reason blog comments are a particularly crappy area for me. I feel like I forget what words mean and use them sloppily and strangely. It’s kind of somewhere between writing and talking and in my case a lot of the vagueness of talking gets in. (Then I look at YouTube comments and realise I’m calibrating my linguistic instruments by some pretty fuddy-duddy standards.)
January 15th, 2010 at 9:48 pm
The trick was to tell them that they were beta readers and if the found any mistakes or had reader questions (them being why is the hero doing this mudane thing that doesn’t seem to advance who they are) as I call them just write them down and go from there.
January 16th, 2010 at 12:22 pm
We two are as multitudes. Or our brains are.
From an editor’s point of view, you have a very good sense of words. It’s your care and attention that trips you up. It’s lovely to work with, even when you’re frightfully worried. You’re balancing how something will be read and what you know needs saying and how the two interact all the time. I love this, though it must be uncomfortable from your end. You do a good job, maybe because of all these concerns.
BTW, I’m in Melbourne for family things. Same phone number as last time if you’re in Oz.
January 16th, 2010 at 1:32 pm
Thanks for the soothing, Gillian! I’m still in Thailand — won’t be in Oz till April, but I’m planning to visit Canberra.
January 16th, 2010 at 3:22 pm
Can I put in a bid for some of your Canberra time? I can bribe you. Chocolate. Fine coffee. Strange cooking. Books.
January 16th, 2010 at 3:29 pm
I was rather hoping to see you. It will probably be in early May, actually. As for bribes, the pleasure of your company will be enough, though you’re welcome to throw in some strange cooking too.
January 17th, 2010 at 7:19 pm
Early May is good. I can cook for you strangely and personally hand over your Baggage, so you won’t have to wait til you get home for it. This also means that Baggage may become baggage (though I can always show it to you and post it if either sort of baggage is too heavy).
(I need to stop making bad jokes. I blame my uncle. The rest of the family were talking about big issues or something at the big family thingie tonight and we were away form them all in a corner, quite mysteriously, and he told me many, many bad jokes.)
January 20th, 2010 at 10:51 am
Not a bad joke at all — although I have a weakness for puns, so perhaps I’m not the best arbiter of goodness and badness here.