Overlooking the obvious

Bernita mentions in a recent post about finding the flaws in your writing. Which got me to thinking, as her posts usually do. I also found, after drafting this post, that Kate Thornton had recently been thinking about the same topic here.

We writers all know that getting that rough or later draft down on paper or in a Word file isn't the final hurdle to leap. We next have to polish and edit and examine. A lot. Which makes it quite easy to overlook the annoyances that bug or turn off readers. Things which can invalidate your authorial status and degrade the readers' trust.

So, what, if anything, can you do for yourself in order to prevent such silly things as, for example, have a character who already died reappear (and who is not, as one of Bernita's commenters mentions, a zombie)?

There are a few simple things you can do, and they can depend on how the example problem occurred. Is the character originally written to live through the book, and you changed your mind? Or were just not thinking?

Because the first thing you can do when you make a change such as killing off a character is make a list of major changes. Then you can remind yourself what you did later on.

Another thing is the so-important critique reader, or beta reader. This person (whom you now owe your firstborn for this service) is invaluable. He or she can point out the logic flaws, glaring errors, and comment upon your grammatical tendencies. Et cetera.

But your primary and foremost defense against the idiotic oversights that can really annoy your readers is repeated edits.

And by repeated edits I mean literally repeated edits. Go thorough your book (in sections if you prefer) and check-- separately-- for varying issues. Issues such as grammar, plot, character growth, out of place things (anachronisms), structural issues (stuff to cut, etc.). This procedure is recommended in one of my favorite writing books, You Can Write A Novel by James V. Smith, Jr. Just check out the Appendix on page 131 for the author's list of things to check on. He calls these 41 things his Cardinal Rules, and many pertain to edits. And he recommends these edits separately so you do not lose focus and miss something. Which is a big drain in energy but seems worthwhile.

One thing that I like the sound of, but which I have never tried, is something I read that another blogger (possibly December Quinn) does: She plots out every character after she's done, double checking to see if it is done properly, with no logic holes or problems.