Dropping the ball

[gunhilltrain]

I don't think any of them ever peed, either!

Have any of you people actually read Moby Dick? I could only get through the first ten pages. I do like when Ismael says at the beginning, that when he's in such a bad mood that "it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people’s hats off—then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can. This is my substitute for pistol and ball." Yes, New York hasn't changed that much since then, has it?

 

[Wifetheif]

Cline is frustrating because he has some genuinely brilliant ideas but he can't write his way out of a paper bag. He can make lists, but "people dancing in typical eighties ways" is hardly scintillating prose. His protagonists are utterly unlikeable and so full of themselves that it's infuriating. One gay character in Ready Player Two worships the main character so much that she LITERALLY bows to him as she praises him! All the protagonists clearly stand in for Cline himself so that puts the ICK factor off the charts. His hero also uses his power to stalk his girlfriend, bankrupt a band that had the temerity to write a parody song about him and hire people to do the hard work in problem solving which he claims credit for later. Seriously? A p

 

[JGittes]

I was 40k words into a sequel to the first story I published on Lit (sequel currently at 75k words and still not finished) before I realized that between June 30 and July 14 (yeah, Nude Day), there is this little US holiday on the 4th. I chalk it up to not living in the US since 2007, but having a story set in Texas that didn't recognize the 4th of July would have been a non-starter. Fixing it took a year and many plot bunny deaths.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

I have a bunch in longer works, but so far no-one else has noticed. But there's one in a short story I'm a bit embarrassed about - everyone else from a group at a restaurant leaves, leaving our three protagonists. Big thing about them all going off in their various directions, two this way, the others that.

Would be fine if I hadn't tried to simplify things by only having five people there in the first place.

Still, no-one seems to have noticed. There's advantages in not many readers. Maybe it's why I don't have many readers?

 

[StillStunned]

I have one that's actually a typo, but it looks bad. One of the characters in "Fun with Fingers" is called Nicola. When I was reading the story to my wife, after it had been published here, I noticed that half the time I'd written "Nicole". I've submitted an edit to change it, but I'm still waiting for it to be approved.

 

[AchtungNight]

Cline is a fanfic writer. As a similar writer, I will note what he is and leave it at that. I enjoyed RP1 when I first read it, wasn’t into repeat reads or the sequel. I carefully look over my own stories to avoid issues like the OP describes. Wouldn’t be surprised if one still got through. I’ve had my share of research and editing fails. Still, if you’re making money off your writing, you should know better.

 

[Rob_Royale]

I just found a dropped ball, so to speak. I read along a WIP that I haven't looked at in a week and realized that right in the middle of a past tense story are two whole paragraphs written in the present tense. It was an oral sex scene, so perhaps I was distracted.

 

[MrPixel]

...right in the middle of a past tense story are two whole paragraphs written in the present tense.

Okay, that's the kind of lapse I relate to. I had that problem in a couple of my earliest stories, and had a commentor take me to task for it. The only "oopsie!" I've discovered so far in recent work that made it all the way to publication was an instance of slipping into first-person narrative in a third-person story.

I tend not to mix-up or otherwise misattribute characters since I'm emotionally involved with all of them, and tend to live the scenes in my mind. The jury is still out on whether that's good or bad.

 

[djrip]

I just found a dropped ball, so to speak. I read along a WIP that I haven't looked at in a week and realized that right in the middle of a past tense story are two whole paragraphs written in the present tense. It was an oral sex scene, so perhaps I was distracted.

When trying to write my present tense story I slipped back into past tense literally every couple of paragraphs and would go on that way for a paragraph or so and then notice and fix it.