One more

One more top down read/revise pass before the Team Eagle Eye hand off. Looks like Thursday or Friday is the target date, about a week behind schedule. Ah, well. One man’s delay is another’s choreographed plan.

By saving the “finicky” readers for this final pass, I hope to maximize their contributions. For instance, the less grammar glitches the gun expert encounters, the more focus he has for technical issues like weapons handling and police procedures.

However, a persistent gotcha in my writing even after all these revisions: dropped words. It’s a virtual guarantee that out of every thousand words, a crucial one exists solely in my mind — not on the page. That’s progress, though. In the early days of the manuscript the ratio was one dropped word for every one hundred, which made for interesting reading.

Dropped words are not my only problem; sometimes spelling errors take me downtown. Towards that end, here is my favorite howler from the novel:

“…and never slam ducks the big guys, then someone must be protecting them.”

There’s more to the line, but using a fragment makes the glitch more obvious. Spell Check flagged that baby AOK, as did yours truly.

3 thoughts on “One more

  • March 20, 2006 at 11:29 am
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    So what the heck do you have against ducks anyway? hee hee. No way spellcheck is every going to help you out with that one.

  • March 20, 2006 at 11:51 am
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    Hey, I love ducks. As I recall, you spotted that very howler first. Much thanks for that catch and other suggestions, by the way.

  • March 20, 2006 at 1:28 pm
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    I was pretty sure that was me. It must be my super strong acuity for all things duck, which obviously comes from living so close to a lake. Obviously.

    Oh, and you’re welcome. I’m glad to hear you’re making progress.

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