Dumbest mistake you've made in your stories?

[Nouh_Bdee]

I'm writing a scene in my current Sci-Fi project where a character is visiting a planet of aliens who slither around on snake-like lower bodies. I just spent an hour writing a scene where the main character follows the action by hearing footsteps. D'oh!
It's getting late here, folks!

What's the dumbest, most obvious mistake you've made in one of your stories, even if you caught it and fixed it right away?

 

[TxRad]

A digital camera in the early 1970's.

 

[KeithD]

Rendering a phrase in Russian that should have been in Japanese.

 

[BarracudaSwordfish]

Changed a main character's name from Mike to Mick between chapters 4 and 5 and never noticed until I'd finished the 13 part series.

 

[TeroWright]

Posted a rough draft as a completed story once. Oh the cringe was strong with that one!

 

[Carnevil9]

I once described a character as having a "taught" ass. Got called out on it in the comments, and have never made that mistake again. So embarrassed!!!!

 

[ElectricBlue]

I once described a character as having a "taught" ass. Got called out on it in the comments, and have never made that mistake again. So embarrassed!!!!

That'll teacher not to know that .

 

[oggbashan]

Frequently - changing characters' names halfway through a story.

Other - a DVD in a story set in the 1960s.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Sci-fi story set on Titan, with about 1/8 Earth's gravity. Long dramatic scene where the heroine falls from the top of the capsule and hits the ground. Everyone bluffed until a smart-arse physicist comes along and points out it would be like falling off a small stool.

My writer's response was along the lines of, "I've just given you a story about an astronaut getting it on with an alien angel critter, and you pull me up on fucking physics? The rest of it's credible, then?"

 

[AlinaX]

On Titan it's the weather that will kill you fastest...

 

[PoisonPen33]

Describing a character as filled with "wonton lust" instead of "wanton lust."

 

[Jamie_and_Lisa]

Describing a character as filled with "wonton lust" instead of "wanton lust."

The problem with wonton lust is that hunger you get an hour after its satiated.

 

[MelissaBaby]

Alvin's boat in Mary and Alvin. After about the fourth scene set on it, I realized that the size and layout kept changing. I decided to say fuck it. Sometimes it is big enough for a dozen people on the deck, sometimes it's cozy for just Mary and Alvin. Sometimes he steers it standing up at a big wheel, sometimes he steers it sitting on a bench at the stern. I've never had any readers mention the discrepancies.

 

[Nouh_Bdee]

These are all making me feel better, people. Thank you.

I feel like “Wonton Lust” and “Teaching Ass” could be good story prompts...

I’ve made some of my characters very different sizes, and keeping the scale straight is more difficult than I expected, so I feel like I can empathize with MelissaBaby for Alvin’s magic boat.

 

[ElectricBlue]

On Titan it's the weather that will kill you fastest...

The weather bit was fine - I'd researched temperature, atmosphere, pressure, but completely forgot about gravity. When I say research, I really mean two minutes on Google, each topic. Shoulda spent eight minutes!

 

[ElectricBlue]

Describing a character as filled with "wonton lust" instead of "wanton lust."

You just forget to explain it was set in Beijing.

 

[Brutal_One]

Alvin's boat in Mary and Alvin. After about the fourth scene set on it, I realized that the size and layout kept changing. I decided to say fuck it. Sometimes it is big enough for a dozen people on the deck, sometimes it's cozy for just Mary and Alvin. Sometimes he steers it standing up at a big wheel, sometimes he steers it sitting on a bench at the stern. I've never had any readers mention the discrepancies.

Has he ever steered it with his cock lol . I hear that’s a thing!

Brutal One

 

[PoisonPen33]

You just forget to explain it was set in Beijing.

"A delivery boy meets a lonely MILF and things get steamy..."

 

[Kumquatqueen]

Want dumplings now... (goes to investigate freezer and get the steamer out)

I had a character all nervous about meeting boyfriend's best friends that are like family, for about 300 words until I remembered they'd actually met and had dinner in the previous chapter.

Those two characters actually got together over a console game sufficiently silly to distract from one's flatmate's annoying girlfriend, so they were playing the Lego Movie game. Whole story had to be shifted to 2010 and I only checked what year the game came out right as I was about to hit submit.

I spent about 5 minutes looking for different games that were available before deciding fuck it, I'm doing this for fun and people can cope with the anachronism. Should anyone notice.

 

[holliday1960]

Describing a character as filled with "wonton lust" instead of "wanton lust."

This is just... omg f'n funny!!! And all the subsequent comments follow suit. I haven't laughed so hard in over a year! This should be on America's Funniest Stories!

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Probably a lot that I wasn't called on. A few that I was. Then there are those readers who thought they were calling me out on until I quoted the 'bible' for them.

 

[SimonDoom]

I might just take a "taught" ass over a "taut" one.

And "wonton" lust -- I'm getting hungry just thinking about it.

 

[Maeven_quinn]

Released a story before it was any good?

More seriously, messing up timelines.

 

[BiscuitHammer]

I have a story that deals with a lot of flashbacks to earlier days for my characters. At one point (after a little too much absinthe), I inserted a character from the modern timeline into a flashback scene. The character hadn't even been born yet.

I was about to hit 'Submit' when I caught the error.

Cue another night of re-writing for me.

The story/saga in question also has massive continuity errors, from where it began to where it is now. It was my first story on here, and I was expecting it to be six chapters, maybe seven, and designed the characters accordingly. The entire series is currently forty, so everything has changed. I get heat for it from the zoilists out there, but it's being corrected. Boy, oh, boy, is it being corrected.

I think really only tiny spelling mistakes like letter reversals make it through at this point. I've trained myself to look for larger errors.

 

[yowser]

Just did it, just now. Submitted a story where the setting is a dairy farm. The only typo in the ms is in the third paragraph where I call it a 'diary farm.'

Duh.

Of course a wise-ass anon comment alerted me instantly (I actually am grateful, since I could do a quick edit and maybe the piece will only be up as an embarrassment for a few days instead of forever.)