Small Edits

[The_Fractal_King]

Welcome to the AH. People have done infinitely more embarrassing things than miss a spelling error, trust me. I screwed up continuity and dropped half a sentence in one story. Funny part is several people read, voted and commented but all missed it.

Weird things happen. Annoying things happen. No amount of editing or rereading is guaranteed to catch them all. It's nothing to get stressed about.

 

[lowflykiwi]

Ta

Welcome to the AH. People have done infinitely more embarrassing things than miss a spelling error, trust me. I screwed up continuity and dropped half a sentence in one story. Funny part is several people read, voted and commented but all missed it.

Weird things happen. Annoying things happen. No amount of editing or rereading is guaranteed to catch them all. It's nothing to get stressed about.

TFK

Thanks for the welcome. I am finding the bunch of people here very pleasant and helpful. Makes the job a Newbie so much more relaxing and enjoyable. to all.

I am sure I will make a big blunder in the future, just hope too many do not see me with my trousers down around my ankles before I exit stage left.

Kiwi

 

[TE999]

Hi kiwi! Welcome to the AH.

I have my M$ Worst set on uber spell check, but gremlins still get through. *sigh*

Also Lit's puters get cranky sometimes and put para breaks where they shouldn't be, change fonts and other mischief. Fortunately a PM to Laurel (The Boss) rectifies that in short order.

Happy writing.

 

[Weird Harold]

WH

That C&P is a cool trick. Will try it in the next editing session.

It's a useful trick for cleaning up a DOC file before converting it to RTF, too. I haven't seen many complaints lately, but submitting in RTF format has caused some serious conversion to Lit Format problems in the past.

I agree about the font etc. used on Lit. It does sort of make the errors stand out .

It isn't the font etc used on Lit tht makes errors stand out, it's that it is not the same font as you use to write it.

The problem is a quirk of vision that is almost analogous to the temporary internet files on your computer: You see what you know is there because you know what you told your fingers to type. Your brain doesn't decode what the eyes are actually seeing and reports what it find in the "cache" from when you read it the first time.

You need to change the way a story looks in some way to force your brain to refresh that "caching" effect. and you need to do it for every draft of the story.

Editing one paragraph at a time in reverse order is another editing technique that breaks the "caching" effect as is printing the story out double spaced and using a literal "blue pencil" to edit.

The find/find and replace function is your friend when it comes to changing character names in mid-stream (but watch out for typos that F&R doesn't catch.)

Still, there is no substitute for a second (third, fourth, fifth, or hundreth) pair of eyes willing to report everything that they find wrong.

(A wise old man with a good deal of experience in writing and publishing once told me that, "The best possible editor is an anal retentive English major with a grudge against you."

I wonder if they would release the style sheet in some form so that it could be used by authors to try their creations offline before going live?

I wrote a How To essay several years ago (has it really been six years? ) to address a different problem: Testing Story Formatting by Weird Harold

It doesn't use the style sheets of the more recent site revisions, but the look and feel of the site hasn't really changed since then, they've just moved the basic format into style sheets tailored for different systems.

 

[lowflykiwi]

You need to change the way a story looks in some way to force your brain to refresh that "caching" effect. and you need to do it for every draft of the story.

Editing one paragraph at a time in reverse order is another editing technique that breaks the "caching" effect as is printing the story out double spaced and using a literal "blue pencil" to edit.

WH

Another trick I have used several times to make sure spelling is correct is read the words in reverse, again to overcome the "caching effect". I have done some proof reading for computer technical manuals so I know where you are coming from. However, Novel/Short Story proof reading is quite different to the dry, sometimes un-emotive, content of a computer manual.

The find/find and replace function is your friend when it comes to changing character names in mid-stream (but watch out for typos that F&R doesn't catch.)

Still, there is no substitute for a second (third, fourth, fifth, or hundreth) pair of eyes willing to report everything that they find wrong.

(A wise old man with a good deal of experience in writing and publishing once told me that, "The best possible editor is an anal retentive English major with a grudge against you."

lmao on this one. Can quite believe the English major comment.

I wrote a How To essay several years ago (has it really been six years? ) to address a different problem: Testing Story Formatting by Weird Harold

It doesn't use the style sheets of the more recent site revisions, but the look and feel of the site hasn't really changed since then, they've just moved the basic format into style sheets tailored for different systems.

I'll check out the Howto. Thanks for that.

Cheers
Kiwi

 

[lowflykiwi]

Hi kiwi! Welcome to the AH.

I have my M$ Worst set on uber spell check, but gremlins still get through. *sigh*

Also Lit's puters get cranky sometimes and put para breaks where they shouldn't be, change fonts and other mischief. Fortunately a PM to Laurel (The Boss) rectifies that in short order.

Happy writing.

TE999

Will keep the boss's address on my contact list in Just In Case.

Cheers
Kiwi

 

[OzoneRed]

I have a few stories published, although none of them on Lit. I'm convinced that there's something in the TCP/IP protocol which inserts and deletes random paragraph breaks, induces spelling errors, and drops spaces between words. I mean, it couldn't be my fault, could it?

 

[lowflykiwi]

I have a few stories published, although none of them on Lit. I'm convinced that there's something in the TCP/IP protocol which inserts and deletes random paragraph breaks, induces spelling errors, and drops spaces between words. I mean, it couldn't be my fault, could it?

OzoneRed

Yea, it's called the POA protocol. Piss Off Author. RFC 666 If I remember correctly

The geeks will inherit the earth. One Binary Digit by Binary Digit at a time.

Kiwi

 

[dr_mabeuse]

Actually, Literotica adds errors to your stories on purpose, just to make you crazy. Laurel's been doing it for years, and it's one of her chief sources of amusement and reasons for maintaining this site.

--Zoot

 

[lowflykiwi]

Actually, Literotica adds errors to your stories on purpose, just to make you crazy. Laurel's been doing it for years, and it's one of her chief sources of amusement and reasons for maintaining this site.

--Zoot

dr_mabeuse

I got her addr from an earlier post so she better watch out -

This thread has been very enlightening and all tips and tricks have been taken to

Kiwi

 

[Guest]

Actually, Literotica adds errors to your stories on purpose, just to make you crazy. Laurel's been doing it for years, and it's one of her chief sources of amusement and reasons for maintaining this site.

--Zoot

I knew it!

I just knew it!

Dang.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

dr_mabeuse

I got her addr from an earlier post so she better watch out -

This thread has been very enlightening and all tips and tricks have been taken to

Kiwi

Actually Laurel's an angel and immensely helpful.

Don't forget you can always resubmit a corrected version of your story. Just submit it like it's a new story using the same title, but append "(EDITED)" after the title and make some note in the comments box. They'll get it and replace the incorrect version with the corrected one, though it will take a while.

Welcome to the AH, Kiwi.

--Zoot