Police. Don't Move!: Pecking typos out of my True Crime manuscript - Is this writing, I ask?

Friday 1 February 2013

Pecking typos out of my True Crime manuscript - Is this writing, I ask?

Well writing my book did seem like some hard work. Some long sessions tapping away at a largish chapter left me brain and finger sore. Re-arranging paragraphs and sentences; and then arranging them right back again, was - for me - strange and arduous duty. (Yep it's my first book).

Now with the manuscript - for all intents and purposes - done, I am into the pre-publication error pecking phase. Now, I realise that actually writing the book was a comparative breeze! I get to a certain point each proof reading session, where all the words - and particularly all the punctuation - turns into one nauseous spiraling river of letters and symbols before my crazed eyes.

Hmm, time for a break!

Coffee and fresh air done, I  return to the coalface - determined to press on - seeking out and murdering rogue spelling that spellchecker breezed right over; finding and fixing the my very own tortured punctuation. Why did I create so many? I feel at times like I wrote the darn thing in Latin, and am now converting it one line at a time, to English.

Who was that famous writer who said something very wise along the likes of: 'Authors don't finish a work - they simply abandon it'?

Well I truly get him; I really do.

Share with me your proofreading agonies - go on, make me feel better will ya?




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