Sigh...(giggle)

[kahoosbt]

I knew I shouldn't re-read my Page Turner chapter after I submitted it.

...But did I listen to me? Noooo!

I found where I'd used the same word three times in one paragraph (and the word wasn't "the", either, LOL.)

WHY I couldn't have found that on the thousand reads / rewrites I did before I submitted it I'll never know.

Oh, well... I know that no matter how many times I might have gone over it, it would never be "perfect", so I'm laughing about it!



Shelley

[Deb Porter]

LOL ... poor Shelley.

Thankfully, the Page Turner judging is a bit different to the Challenge. We aren't quite so concerned about whether it's absolutely perfect, and more interested in whether it grabs our attention and makes us want to keep reading.

If it was perfect, then you wouldn't need the editing part of the prize.

Just glad to finally get your entry safely tucked away in our list (after all the problems uploading it).

Love, Deb

[Wrider]

I don't even read my books after they've been published. I find too many things I want to change, or think I could have worded better, etc. I finally realized that I could find a mistake in any book I pulled off the shelf at the bookstore, and if it saved me from beating myself up, I would just leave the reading of my own published books to others!!

[swfdoc1]

I found where I'd used the same word three times in one paragraph (and the word wasn't "the", either, LOL.)

Good for you!

While many modern "experts" teach elegant variation as a GOOD thing, it is a BAD thing. This from a--gasp --ACCURATE Wikipedia article:

Elegant variation is a phrase coined by Henry Watson Fowler referring to the unnecessary use of synonyms to denote a single thing. In A Dictionary of Modern English Usage (1926) he says:

It is the second-rate writers, those intent rather on expressing themselves prettily than on conveying their meaning clearly, & still more those whose notions of style are based on a few misleading rules of thumb, that are chiefly open to the allurements of elegant variation. . . . The fatal influence . . . is the advice given to young writers never to use the same word twice in a sentence — or within 20 lines or other limit.

In the 1920s, when Fowler coined the term "elegant variation", the word elegant had a since-lost pejorative connotation of “precious over-refinement”. In The Oxford Dictionary of American Usage and Style, Bryan Garner unambiguously renamed the term inelegant variation.

The same word three times in one paragraph? Can anyone say "Earnest Hemingway"? (Not that I really like Hemingway as much as I'm "supposed to.")

[kahoosbt]

Thanks, Deb--that's good to know! And thanks again for your extra help with my troublesome files!


Rachel- No doubt your idea is a good one for sanity's sake. For some reason I've never been able to NOT reread though.

You have a good point, too in that no matter how well gone over / edited / proofread etc... I don't think any book in print has ever been "perfect".

I was going to add except the Bible...but on a "typo" basis it isn't necessarily error free either.

I have to tell a funny here...when I first started teaching it was at a newly founded Christian school. They had ordered everything from a major Christian schools publishing company, and one of the things included was inexpensive student Bibles (printed by this company). Well, they made a few mistakes, but shipped the Bibles before they caught them all so had to send out stickers to cover typos.

The best one was 1 Timothy 6:6 which reads (KJV):
"But godliness with contentment is great gain."

What the school copies originally read (before we covered them with the stickers they sent us) was:
"But godliness with contentment is great pain."



Shelley

[kahoosbt]

Hi Steve--your post came through while I was typing mine.

I LIKE what you wrote!

Did you "hear" that Deb? It wasn't a mistake after all. I really did it on purpose...so I won't be "inelegant".

PLUS, I'm like Hemingway!!! Steve said so.



Okay, maybe not.

Seriously, though, I enjoyed the post. Thanks, Steve!

Shelley

[JesusPuppy]

Shelley...? Don't worry, no matter how bad it is it will still beat mine.

[kahoosbt]

Hmmm...

I'm not so sure.

I haven't read any of your stuff, Pup, but I have the feeling there's real talent behind that self-deprecating humor!

Shelley

[lidijo1]

I found a place in mine where I wrote the same exact sentence twice in a row... my only real problem is due to the fact that someone else was typing it for me (from my handwritten manuscript), and they drew lines where they thought a break in the story should be ( not where I planned them to be) and when I was revising my copy, I could not get the lines to erase. I could edit the words... but could not do a thing with the lines... I guess I will eventually have to re-type it myself without the lines...oh, well...