The DNF Dance

At what point do you put a book down and not finish it because of poor editing? I’m not talking about a story that doesn’t click for you, is outside your realm of interest or anything to do with taste

I’m speaking of straight up poor editing. Even down to the sentence level.

I believe I mentioned I’ve been on a reading tear. For this month I am at 15 books completed, not counting the 3 books I reread. (All by Zapata, I really really like her books!) Not all the authors I like are on KU which is where I’m getting most of the books I’m reading. And with 35 books under my belt for February and March, I had to branch out. Found some thru TikTok, and some through recommendations on Amazon.

I’m going to put a few caveats here. 1. I know, I KNOW my writing here could use a good editing or even proofreading. I come here to get things off my chest. When I send things out for “Submission” it has been proofread & sent to my writing partner (Hi Sis!) for editing help. 2. I will not name this author here. She has done something not everyone can do– completed and published not one but 3 books (in the series). 3. To whomever left the Amazon review of how she could get her money back from her editor… I howled. Also felt bad, but snickered too. BUT there is a possibility she didn’t have the funds for an editor, or resources. However, some of the problems could have been spotted with a set of beta readers.

The first hiccup I encountered was the tense. Writing in present tense is hard on the reader, but I could roll with it. Not my first rodeo lol. I don’t generally like the pacing, but the book was under 300 pages so thought I could handle it.

Then there was the missing word. It bothered me enough that I  went back a few times just to see that Yup ! Really missing a word there.

Chapter four rolls around. We, the reader, are still with the couple on the first meeting. It’s been going back and forth between male and female character for point of view, but I’m chapter four we get.. Past tense.

No. Just no.

I know that fore personally, if I continue reading it I will be doing so in order to find more hiccups. But there’s no reason for me to do this. I am not in a class, needing to give feedback. I am not her editor. I am not a beta reader.

And at 15% in, I’m not that invested in the characters. Which wouldn’t be a problem (taste) but I figured it was short. I could rip through it. Maybe it gets better. But when that chapter bounced the tenses, I hard bounced out.

So my lovelies, at what point do you DNF a book due to technical errors?

If you write and self publish, please know that there are people rooting for you and willing to be beta readers for you.

Alive and kicking

Hello, my lovelies. It’s been a little while… through no fault of my own *cheeky grin*

I blew up my old laptop. Its poor battery was already shot, and I was typing on an attached keyboard because the one on it had been worn off (no problem STARTING stories— just finishing LOL). They apparently just go POP. Right off. Who knew? I limped it along, though, for about a year… then I started getting the blue screen of DOOM. The Blue DOOM Gate. Well, it was plugged in, and accidentally left on, and… well…. KABLAM!

So, I had to go out and get a new one. Thankfully, I had saved the money for it. However, once I did that… I couldn’t get the freaking internet to work. Do you know how hard it is to do ANYTHING on a laptop running Windows 8.1 with No Internet? Well, I’ll tell ya. I can’t even find the freaking solitare game, but there are lots of other games. That utilize the internet. SIGH.

But here I am! I am back, baby! AND… I am happy to announce that as of Saturday, all the new items that had been completed and lost on old laptop have been recovered. Most due to emailing them (I have web based email and always save the sent messages with attachments). One, I got back from the Glimmer Train submission thing (WOOHOO! Didn’t think I was going to pull that one off!). And the third, the one closest to my heart even though it clocks in at under 500 words… My Beta Reader still had. Safe and sound. And it’s been since the summer that I sent it to her, so here’s to you Trisha! It would have devastated me to loose that one.

It’s a conversation, that’s all it is. No tags, no scenery except what’s in the dialog. And it’s between a mother and son… in the Inbetween. I may have to write something longer, someday, but this one is special, and it’s grounded on stories my son and I tell eachother when he has a hard time sleeping.

Of course, there are many, many books to review. I’ll start getting those up and going soon.

Ta, my lovelies! I’m back!

Dear Smash Words Author

Dear Smashwords Author,

I, like you, love to write. I bought your short story knowing what it was, and was ok with it. It was, in all actuality and truth, a brilliant concept with a few great turns of phrase.

Then you mucked it up by not having it edited.

“But I went through it twenty times!” I can hear the shriek now, and again I say to you: “You mucked it up by not having it edited.”

“But I don’t have the money…” Hmm. Neither do I. Many writers don’t. But we do have these great people called Beta Readers. I have 2 types of Beta readers. One type is for over all story, ending, how it reads purely from a readers point of view. I’m sorry, but a close friend who doesn’t read much but who loves your work does not count. You need someone who reads what you write. Like tends to attract like, so poke your head up away from the computer screen and take a look around you. The second type of Beta reader, for myself at least, is even more important. The Grammar Police. Yes. You do need them. I have three. Count them. One. Two. Three.

Your brilliant concept? You blew it on grammar. Wrong, shifting tenses AND pronouns! Beta type 2 would have caught this for you. It might have made you feel a little bad to see all that red in your manuscript but oh my, they can take your words and help them SING. Sing, I say!

This isn’t something you can do for yourself, either. There are very few who can (and if you are one of those few, you know that you are blessed so please don’t contradict me here— this is for the newbie). As writers, we spend so much time inside our stories that some times we aren’t really reading the words that are there. We start reading what we think goes there. Eh. It happens. Hence the Grammar Police.

I love those three ladies more than I can say. Rie, Trisha and Linda Beck, you rock my work out. Thank you so much.

Grammar counts. When it works, reading a story is effortless. But when it doesn’t work, when you don’t have that basic grasp (and many of the things I’m calling you out on are basic)… It is confusing. The story becomes a beast that is not approachable in any way.

So please, please, please Think before you publish. Is it REALLY as good as you can make it? Do you know anyone who can act as your grammar police? If not.. ask people. Hey, do  you know anyone who corrects everyone’s letters? Watch on facebook.. you’ll know by their posts that they love books and sometimes even that they love the idiosyncrasies of grammar.

But please, don’t rush in. You can’t get that first impression back, especially when it’s there for all time… or until their e-reader crashes.

 

(And yes, I know that there are some errors on this post…. 😀  )