Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Fixing Old Mistakes Takes Time...

So, I have been writing my latest novel, Lament, and I realized that little mistakes are so annoying while I was reviewing it. Despite reading something over twenty times, I still found mistakes each time. It was driving me nuts!!!

I am lucky enough to have a volunteer editor for my future works, but the short stories I had already published were bothering me... haunting me. I noticed my biggest mistake was reading what I thought was there rather than reading what was actually written. The misstep is that, as I am the writer, I know what is supposed to be written. So, when I am reading, my focus drifts and I believe I wrote sentences as they are in my mind. When in actuality, there is an error.

Finally, I downloaded a manuscript software called Write Way Pro . Although I basically set up character profiles and outlines by hand anyway, this program reads the chapters that I have written individually or it can read me the whole book. So, I am hearing it as if my reader were reading it! Genius!!! Now I can catch those annoying little spelling errors.

So, I have tried it out by going over Weeping Willow. I have found plenty of foolish errors which I fixed. I put the newest version on Smashwords . Since Smashwords is the vendor that delivers my short stories to the other online bookstores, it will take about two months to update in those secondary online stores. So, if you can live with the errors while reading, that's fine. Otherwise go onto Smashwords and download a fully revised copy for your e-reader today. Thanks and keep reading!!!

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