Post Publishing Irritants

Is it common to notice every single mistake you made once your story is published?

I read through what I had written in it's online version and it was like every error was flashing in bright, neon colors. I felt like an idiot. Why the hell were they stealthy as ninjas in MS Word and as obvious as an earthquake once published?

Ugghhh. Annoying.

Join the club. It happens to most of us.

I submitted a story last night. It's pending.

I looked at the printed hard copy I had read through three times before submission. I noticed I had put an additional letter in a character's surname in consecutive paragraphs. I had noticed and corrected that mistake elsewhere in the story but missed those two.

They're obvious to me - now. They might not be to the readers.

I am kind of glad to know I am not the only one that happens to. I have just had my first story published here and noticed some mistakes right away.

Is there any way correct any such problems? Delete the old one and publish a new version.

you're new. you'll learn.

loc_hlaith said:

I am kind of glad to know I am not the only one that happens to. I have just had my first story published here and noticed some mistakes right away.

Is there any way correct any such problems? Delete the old one and publish a new version.

Click to expand...

yes, resubmit the story with [delete] in the title.

I think it happens to all of us. We've published our story, its up on Literotica and then we see a glaring spelling, punctuation or grammatical error.

Because I write most of my stories set in the past I'm careful to avoid historical anachronisms, but being Australian have made errors at times by using terms from Australia in stories set in England or America. They are small and insignificant, but enough to irritate me. For example, in one lesbian story set in America I slipped up and on one occasion a character refers to her mother not as 'Mom' but 'Mum'. In another American story, a man complains about his 'bloody kids', which is pretty accurate given their behavior, but Americans don't use the word 'bloody', it mainly is used in Australia, New Zealand, England or Ireland. In an English story a young man says he wouldn't do something for a million dollars, when really he should have said a million pounds.

Bebop3 said:

Why the hell were they stealthy as ninjas in MS Word and as obvious as an earthquake once published?

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Because Lit reformats your text from what MSWord shows; your eyes see what you actually typed instead of what you "know" is there.

The number of errors that jump out at you after publishing can be reduced by changing font, font-size, Font-color, Margins, or anything else that will change the text from your original layout. Do that for each iteration of self editing and then get an English major who hates you to give it a thorough critique.

Then curse yourself for an idiot when something jumps out at you when the story posts. It happens to everyone and the only thing you can do is minimize the damage.

Weird Harold said:

Because Lit reformats your text from what MSWord shows; your eyes see what you actually typed instead of what you "know" is there.

The number of errors that jump out at you after publishing can be reduced by changing font, font-size, Font-color, Margins, or anything else that will change the text from your original layout. Do that for each iteration of self editing and then get an English major who hates you to give it a thorough critique.

Then curse yourself for an idiot when something jumps out at you when the story posts. It happens to everyone and the only thing you can do is minimize the damage.

Click to expand...

and that's the genius of Weird Harold.

...........

A little more detail about the editing method for Lit, courtesy my handy-dandy pot of copy-pasta.

• Take note of the url of your story/chapter. That's the address appearing in the address bar of your browser when you view the first page of your story. You really only need the last part after the /s/ that represents your title.
• Start a new submission.
• Use the same title as the original ( or as much as will fit ) plus something such as *EDIT*
• Fill in the same category, then fill description and keywords with placeholders, as they don't matter. ( Unless one of these things are what you're editing )
• If editing the story text, paste/upload the new text in the "story text" section. You need to upload the whole story/chapter, not just the edited sections. If editing anything else, copy the "notes" section detailed below in order to fill this section.
• In the "notes" section, say what you are editing. If story text, then put that. If title, then put the requested NEW title here. You can fill in edited descriptions/keywords/category above, but you'll still want to list any such changes here. It's a good idea to list the url that I mentioned in step 1. This is unique to every story/chapter, and can help eliminate the potential for human error. As mentioned above, if you are editing something other than the story text, copy what you put in the notes section to the "story text" as well. This is simply because there must be something in that section for you to submit.
• Click "Review", then "Submit"

Edits are subject to the same wait time as a new story. I have seen edits go up in bulk in far less time than a story usually requires to post, though.

Edits will not appear on the public side immediately. Wait at least 24 hours after the "edited" submission vanishes from your private author list before worrying that your changes haven't been applied. Changes may not all appear at the same time, either. Page 1 may change, while page 2 will remain the same until an hour or so later. Be patient as the system catches up.

If you edit the story in this manner ( as opposed to deleting and re-submitting ) you'll retain your votes, views, comments, etc. The only thing that will be changed is what you say that you want changed. It will not appear on the New List again.

If you wish to delete a story, use much the same method, except put something such as *DELETE* in the title, and say that you want to delete the story in question in the "notes" section.

If you wish to delete all of your stories, an entire series, etc., then use the normal delete process, but explain in the "notes" section that you want to do a mass delete, and what type.

Convoluted, but it does work. It gets a little easier as you get used to it.

loc_hlaith said:

I am kind of glad to know I am not the only one that happens to. I have just had my first story published here and noticed some mistakes right away.

Is there any way correct any such problems? Delete the old one and publish a new version.

Click to expand...

Every single time, usually before it's posted so I can correct them while they are in pending. But a lot of times after they have posted and several readers have commented on the error. Embarrassing.

Another good way to find errors and especially stumbles in the flow is to read the story aloud.

TxRad said:

Another good way to find errors and especially stumbles in the flow is to read the story aloud.

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YES! This always works for me too.

Bebop3 said:

Is it common to notice every single mistake you made once your story is published?

I read through what I had written in it's online version and it was like every error was flashing in bright, neon colors. I felt like an idiot. Why the hell were they stealthy as ninjas in MS Word and as obvious as an earthquake once published?

Ugghhh. Annoying.

Click to expand...

Always. One microsecond after you press the 'submit' key you just know there's a stupid error about to jump off the Lit page when you open your little baby, and sure enough....

100% perfect copy is an impossible thing, I reckon.

Don't sweat it. Your first story was far better than most, it had some glitches, but nothing to panic about. I got a story back from a beta reader who also spotted typos for me. Sure enough, I read it through on Lit, and there it was: "Wellinsertcomma Australian Alex..." Face Palm 101.

Bebop3 said:

Is it common to notice every single mistake you made once your story is published?

I read through what I had written in it's online version and it was like every error was flashing in bright, neon colors. I felt like an idiot. Why the hell were they stealthy as ninjas in MS Word and as obvious as an earthquake once published?

Ugghhh. Annoying.

Click to expand...

There is no reason why it should be any different for you than for me

While it was still pending I corrected the errors I mentioned in post #2 above.

The story is marked to be posted tomorrow. When it is? I'll see the errors I didn't catch.

We all dance with the fuckup fairy many times.

I've been able to iron out most of the errors pre-publishing through obsessive rereads, but I noticed yesterday that I missed something fairly glaring, and fairly obvious. C'est la vie. Apart from the errors, I'm constantly tinkering with what I've already posted. Always a little room to tighten language, improve a metaphor, whatevs.

Thanks, everyone.

I appreciate the sharing and the suggestions were great.