Oops! What did I just say? – Throwback Thursday Style #TBT

Good morning, it’s Thursday, and that means I’m going to post a throwback from my earlier posts. Essentially a re-post of an old archived post with new notes and observations. 

Anything added(except grammar and spelling corrections) are marked in blue within the original Post’s text. 

The next post I’m going to revisit is, Oops! What did I just say? .  Originally posted on Aug 27, 2016, 2:00 PM. The reason I’m revisiting is that this was one of my favorite posts and it’s still relevant.

Oops! What did I just say?

The other day I was reading a book written by a very well known author. I was enjoying the chapter and my eyes tripped on a word and the story ground to a halt. There was a typo. A word spelled correctly, but not the correct word.  I thought “Huh, even the best make Mistakes .” That is because they are human, just like me. I smiled and kept reading.

(I have since found three more “oops” errors in popular published books.)

My proofreaders and I have found typos in my book. There are probably still a bunch in there. I’ve talked about this before in revision posts, but I thought I’d show an example this time.  (There were A LOT of them. In my new book too. I was just editing and found one. I had the instead of they. These types of errors are easy to do and easier to miss.)

Example:

Sasha turned and looked over her shoulder at the reflection in the mirror. The tight red dress made her ass look phenomenal. Billy is going to love it for sure. Their second date. Running her hands over the soft supple fabric, he imagined Billy doing the same.

Fastest sex change in history 😉 also IMO the easiest typo to make.

Billy cleared his throat as the waiter approached.
“Are you ready to order?” The waiter looked at Sasha.
Sasha smiled up at the waiter. “Yes, I’ll have the Chicken Primavera.”
“Very good and for you sir?”
Billy nodded at the menu. “I’ll have the Anus steak medium rare, the spring vegetables instead of the potatoes please.”
“Excellent choice sir.”

Oops! I’m not sure what kind of restaurant Billy took Sasha to, but I hope they at least serve local beef.
In revision, I might be horrified and fix that mistake or take the opportunity to work it in. (I still like to take a moment and see if it can make for funny dialogue. Some of the best comedic moments are by accident. Even in real life. My son says the most entertaining things and mixes up words. I try to write them down because sometimes I laugh so hard it hurts.)

“Excellent choice sir.” The polite waiter took their menus and shuffled off quickly.
Sasha snickered behind her hand.
“What?” Billy furrowed his brow.
“I know you want a piece of ass Billy, but I figured you could at least wait until after dinner.”
Billy’s puzzled frown lasted only a moment before his face went red and he laughed.

(I still find mistakes like this in dialog funny. It happens in real life, and if like me, you have a friend that spoonerisms often or uses the wrong word, why not have a character prone to it too? Just limit it to one character and not all the time. Too much will become tedious and repetitive quickly. Save perfection for the narrative, let your characters mess up sometimes.)

My advice about mistakes.

You will make them. They can be fixed. Before you do, think about it, can it become part of the story? Defiantly have someone else review your work, they might catch a typo you passed by several times because you wrote it in the first place.

-Sheryl

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