Fanfic errors

[kpopstolemysoul]

So to make my editing heart happy, I'm going to begin posting some of the most common things I see in fics. One amazing thing I've noticed about daily cartoons and comics published in broadsheet media is that they just about never have typos or spelling errors if they're a major name cartoon. That would be a fun job to have. But oh, the pressure

Comments

[min7girl]

I'm dyslexic and exhausted when I write, I'm usually happy if it's slightly coherent. LOL.

I also know my brain barely allows for a pause in station identification let alone me to go back and review properly what I wrote. Sometimes i am appalled at the things that came out when I read them a month later and I feel bad about it. So if you have any ideas as to what Someone like me can do. who posts like a mad woman and has no beta reader. please let me know.

[kpopstolemysoul]

You need a magic computer that knows what your intention was and corrects all your flubs. I'm afraid that the only other option I know of really IS a beta reader.

It's really tough to avoid the kinds of mistakes I see. (I'm reading someone else's fic right now and just spotted another one I've often seen, and will edit my post to include it.)

I'm blind to my own mistakes when I post to discussion forums, and I get too antsy to get my post out there. So what do I do? I just post it when it feels like I'm done, and forget to check my own writing especially if I've edited the meaning and the sense a dozen times already.

I don't know if it's a similar feeling for fanfic writers. I do know that errors in the written product do not equate to a poor writer or poor storytelling. So I guess my question to you would be, why do you not have a beta reader, is it because it's too hard to expose your vulnerable children? (Said sincerely; *not* said sarcastically!)

[min7girl]

I don't have a beta reader cause I write too fast and no one I know can or is willing to keep up.

[acornmama]

I am pretty much always available to beta if you need one/actually want one.

[jinkibumiminho]

I spy the there/their and its/it's confusion quite often (that's quite, not quiet, another common error).

I think the boo-boos we see arise from several sources: English learners; young writers who haven't had the benefit of completing their basic educations (and are accustomed to texting, not composing); and speed demons such as my beloved min7girl, who is so delightfully prolific that I'm happy to look past (!) any errors in composition, because her storied leave me passed out (!) from squeeing.

I've given up reading many a story with a delightful premise only because the writing was so error-ridden I couldn't suspend my disbelief and become absorbed. I'll also share that I stopped subscribing to my home-town newspaper because it was so poorly edited!

[kpopstolemysoul]

Ah yes - the Demon "it's" and its twin brother

case in point

[kpopstolemysoul]

yeah, see that? Can't edit my own writing because I already read it as I know it's meant to be written. LOL.

[jinkibumiminho]

Hah! I write with my thesaurus in my lap, because, honestly, when I'm trying to create a scene that's all sweet and mushy, I get stalled with softly, gently, tenderly. I do proofread my work for exactly what you mentioned!

[acornmama]

One of the reasons I know for sure, is that the lovely spell check is not grammar check. If it is a word it passes. For instance I often see "titled" when I know the author meant "tilted". It happens often enough sometimes in the same piece. And in many more pieces than I thought would come up.

The other one is usually "taut" denoting the tense or strung tight feeling vs."taught" or even "taunt"

oh and "waist/waste"