Struggling with Writing Mistakes

If you've been reading my Wednesday blogs for some time, you know that I'm constantly struggling to put out a book without any errors. I've always had an editor, and I've tried different ones. The most expensive editor let the most mistakes through of any. I also have beta readers, but no matter what I do, a couple still seems to sneak through much too often for my peace of mind. One good outcome is that this keeps me humble.

Thankfully, there aren't many mistakes, and most readers tell me they never see one. That's good because I don't want anything to distract them from the story. Perhaps they're like me and often read what they think is there according to the context. In fact, I can and have edited other writers' manuscripts but not my own without additional help. As I write, I'm seeing the movie of what's happening play in my mind and working to get it on paper. Then once it's on paper, I read what I thought I put. Thankfully, my print-on-demand publisher will make the needed corrections. The traditional one, however, is another matter.

However, in trying to alleviate this problem, I've learned two things. First of all, out of the thousands and thousands of books I've read, I can only remember one in which I found no mistakes, and another reader could probably locate some in it. The classics have them, the top sellers have them, and practically all books have them. Knowing how hard I'm trying to put out a perfect book, my husband has been showing me the errors he finds in the books he reads. In an 80,000-word book, the chances of making a mistake are great. Therefore, perhaps I'm being too hard on writers, including myself.

In addition, I think becoming a published author has opened my eyes to mistakes I wouldn't have seen before because I have more concern and discernment now. Of course, being a former English teacher also helps them stand out. All this thinking has sent me on the road to becoming more tolerant instead of overly critical. Almost all my mistakes come from typos and carelessness from having my focus on the content, and I can assume this is true for many other authors, too. I'm not sure why editors and readers don't catch them, but perhaps they get caught up in the story, too. Although I will continue to work to put out the perfect book, I probably need to quit putting so much pressure on myself. At least, my books have fewer all the time, and that does make me feel better.

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