Tuesday, January 28, 2014

What I Learned from Beta Reads

Or, Things I Can’t Believe I Messed Up While Writing, OMG, I’m So Embarrassed.

1. I forget words kind of a lot. Well, it’s every few pages, which seems like a lot to me.

2. No matter how many times I went through my MS, my beta readers will still find grammatical errors. I’m sure it happens to everyone, but man, I felt like I was new at the whole putting words on paper thing.

3. “Accidently” is a word somehow. (My reaction can best be summed up as o__O) And of course I used it. This is why you need beta readers. Because Word has some messed up excuses for words in its dictionary.

4. My favorite way to emphasize something, besides using adverbs, is by saying “managed to”. I could get away with that phrasing once, maybe twice, but any more and it becomes one of those bumps that knocks the reader out of the story.

Seriously, I wanted to crawl into a hole of shame after this. I should get more people to proofread because I do not trust myself after this.


So now we’re at the point where I turn things over to you. What’s your most embarrassing mistake? Anyone ever heard of “accidently”?

10 comments:

  1. I've been caught by accidently as well, lol.
    And I miss words too. All the time. It's because I'm thinking faster than I'm typing. Gotta love our beta readers!!

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  2. We all miss stuff like that. I have certain words I overuse, and no matter how many times my critique partners tell me, I still do it. (Although I did manage to cut down my use of the word 'felt' in my last manuscript!)

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  3. When I first started writing, WAS was my bane. Still is - obviously! I end rewording more sentences trying to get rid of it.

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  4. I have an embarrassing homophone in House. However, it is evidently so often used incorrectly, only person so far has noticed my mistake. Once I get Brother's Keep finished, I'm going to do a revised edition of House and fix that.

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  5. My overuse is of the word now. It's something that I am very mindful of not using since I've become aware of the use of it.

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  6. Beta readers are great for picking out errors we overlook ourselves. Don't be embarrassed. You'll find similar mistakes in their work! One of my biggest problems is repeated words and phrases!

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  7. There's a point where you get too close to your work and you don't see the mistakes. That's why they say to give it some time, print it out (or read it in another format, like on a tablet), and read it out loud.

    I've made some pretty stupid mistakes myself. Too many to list, really.

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  8. 1. I forget words kind of a lot. Well, it’s every few pages, which seems like a lot to me.

    It's not you. It's Word gremlins. *grin*
    Symptom: Grrr. I *know* I typed that 'the'.

    2. No matter how many times I went through my MS, my beta readers will still find grammatical errors. I’m sure it happens to everyone, but man, I felt like I was new at the whole putting words on paper thing.

    Meh. When you're juggling a 70 to 100k-word manuscript, grammatical brain farts are going to happen. And sometimes it *was* right the first time; the mistake is a remnant from a revision. ;)

    3. “Accidently” is a word somehow. (My reaction can best be summed up as o__O) And of course I used it. This is why you need beta readers. Because Word has some messed up excuses for words in its dictionary.

    *shrugs* It's apparently becoming an accepted spelling, though accidentally is preferred. (And I wouldn't have caught it if you hadn't pointed out. So there. :P)

    4. My favorite way to emphasize something, besides using adverbs, is by saying “managed to”. I could get away with that phrasing once, maybe twice, but any more and it becomes one of those bumps that knocks the reader out of the story.

    We all have our go-to words and phrases. Sometimes we recognize them ourselves and thin them out. Sometimes it takes a second set of eyes. Try making a list of the things you know you repeat and doing a doc search for them. Or try using software like SmartEdit. But don't feel bad. Things like this are what critiques are for. ;)

    As for me, I'm STILL finding glaring errors in my ms, and I'm planning to swap betas starting Feb. 1. 0_0 Part of my problem is I made subtle changes to the story, and I'm still hunting down all the fallen dominoes. xD

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  9. When I was reading one of the old Superman comic books as a child, the word "accidentally" was broken up into "acciden-" and "tally." This was crucial, because someone had witnessed one of the superhero's secret identity, accidentally. I had to wrack my brain to figure out what acciden and tally meant in this crucial conversation.

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  10. LOL! You can't beat yourself up. I always cringe when readers point out the obvious, but that's why we have them. I've come to the point where I just expect there will be mistakes, and that's fine. That's why they're there. Still, I have a hard time letting go of my book baby. Tell me about grammatical issues, but if my characters are being stupid, that hurts the most--or if a plot point is lame. Yup. Grammar me to death. I can take it.

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Please validate me.