Still Finding Typos

A while ago, I been looking over my memoir after being away from it from some time (not sure how long in either case). And as always seems to be the case when looking over anything I have written, I have continued to find typos and omitted words. It's amazing how many times one can look over the same work and still find these things. I have begun noting errors on the current printout.

Today I saw this article:
What’s Up With That: Why It’s So Hard to Catch Your Own Typos

I guess it can be hard to proofread one's own work. I've had to do its may times now, and I wonder how many more times I will have to go over it again, how many mistakes I will miss this time around. 


From Grammar Girl:

Proofreading Tips

So my primary advice on avoiding typos is to have someone else proofread your work. On the other hand, I know this isn't possible for things like e-mail or rushed projects, so here are four proofreading tips I've collected over the years.

1. Read your work backward, starting with the last sentence and working your way in reverse order to the beginning. Supposedly this works better than reading through from the beginning because your brain knows what you meant to write, so you tend to skip over errors when you're reading forwards.
2. Read your work out loud.  This forces you to read each word individually and increases the odds that you'll find a typo. This works quite well for me, and most of the typos that make it into my transcripts seem to be things you wouldn't catch by reading aloud, such as misplaced commas.
3. Always proofread a printed version of your work. I don't know why, but if I try to proofread on a computer monitor I always miss more errors than if I print out a copy and go over it on paper.
4. Give yourself some time. If possible, let your work sit for a while before you proofread it. I'm just speculating here, but it seems to me that if you are able to clear your mind and approach the writing from a fresh perspective, then your brain is more able to focus on the actual words, rather than seeing the words you think you wrote.
   
   
   Trying to read something outloud has been hard for me as I read rather fast. And has anyone ever read anything backwards? I would have never considered that one, but I can see it being pretty awkward.  And I have been trying tog et others to read my work, but to no avail. 
   What are some ways you look for mistakes in your writing? And how many times has it taken you to get this done?
   
   

SaveSave

Chapter Break Bingo – July 2018

Here is the new card for July.

My Books for this one:

1. The Mars Room--Rachel Kushner (3 squares): Audiobook, Library Book, Dual or Multiple POV
2. Sisters--Raina Telgemeier (5 squares): LOL, WTF, Physical Book, Travel (Distance), In a Series
3. Making Waves--Nicole Leigh Shepherd (1 square): Young Adult
4. The Devil and Daniel Silverman--Theodore Roszak (1 square): Multi-Word Title
5. Crazy Rich Asians--Kevin Kwan (4 squares): Free Space, Foreign Country, Cookout/Feast, Character Wears Glasses
6. Carmilla--J. Sheridan Le Fanu (4 squares): Free Book, Mythical Creature, Historic, Magic/Magical,  Super/Special Powers
7. Love Walked In--Marisa de los Santos (1s quare): Shelf Love
8. Slay It With Flowers--Kate Collins (1 square): Crafty Person or Book
9. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao--Junot Diaz (1 square): Retelling
10. The Brontes--Rebecca Fraser (1 square): Long (Over 400 Pages)
11. Sleight of Paw--Sofie Kelly (1 square): Animal/Pet
12. Runaway--Heather Graham (1 square): Hat on Cover

25 squares completed on July 27.

SaveSave

Passing on Your Love of Reading

I just saw this link on the Facebook group for the Reading Challenge that starts today. Even though I have no children myself, I could not agree more with what is said in this link:

Parents pass on a love of reading to their children by sharing their own favourite childhood books

I agree that people of all ages should read books from all periods of literature to learn more about different time periods and how people lived then. This is especially important now, with so much focus on tech these days. This is one reason I chose to write a book set in the 1980s. This was the decade in which I grew up, so I know a lot about it. I now hope others will learn more about it if my book ever comes to fruition. 

And if I had ever had children, I try to get them to read books I'd loved as a child, or even read those books to them. 

SaveSaveSaveSave

Quiz: The Beach Test

"You Are Quietly Passionate"

You like people, but you're careful about who you get close to. Friendship is important to you... so important that you aren't just friends with anyone. You don't fall in love easily. It takes you a long time to get used to someone. Intimacy doesn't come easily for you. You are a deep and contemplative person. You are as passionate as everyone else, but your passion is not always apparent. Your sense of humor is intellectual and obscure. Only really well educated people get your jokes.

The Beach Test

Blogthings: 100's of Fun, Free Quizzes!

Writing About Another Time

If you have written novels set in other decades, how did you research that time period  or did you? If it was the decade you grew up in, would it be necessary to do such research, if you know most about that time?  Having grown up in the 1980s, it was somewhat easy to remember things about that decade, so it has been somewhat easy to write a novel set in that decade. I can remember not being able to afford cable or a VCR, two things I included in my diary novel. And using the Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature to find magazine articles for research papers. 

From the opening paragraph of my book:

... I hate the way I look. Curly dark hair, dull-looking brown eyes and teeth sticking out in all directions…an overbite. It should come as no surprise that my dentist said I need braces. Hearing this triggered my anxiety. I was sure Mom would not be able to afford it and I would have crooked teeth all my life. I’d said that I would gladly skip it, but no such luck. My mom is always working to be able to feed the two of us and now she says has to get a second job so that I can get braces. If Rachel Blair won’t let one thing slide, it’s the fact that my teeth need straightening. “You’ll look and feel so much better,” she’s been trying to convince me. But she will say we can’t afford other stuff, like that new thing called a VCR that allows you to record TV shows to watch later. ...

And I knew that anxiety over getting braces was a thing in the 80s--I went through that and had been waiting write about it in a book.

Now I'm wondering if I ever want to try writing about another decade, one before I was born. That would take a lot of research. I've found the 1960s to be quite fascinating. At work last week we had a 60s-themed party, something I had been waiting to do for years, and finally got to. The 50s have also been quite fascinating to me, and now I want to do a 50s-themed party. another girl at the center wants a luau themed and another an 80s-themed one.

Since I was born to children of the 1960s, I could ask them some things about that decade if I ever choose to set a story in that decade. And there's always the Internet for learning about other decades. 

This site gives eight rules for writing historical fiction. Those who have written such books, did you ever follow these rules, or were you even aware of them to begin with? I know that not everyone will go by these rules, and that it isn't necessarily true that you have to do so. 

SaveSave

When to Write a Sequel?

When should you consider writing a sequel? Is it something you should be planning when you haven't even published the first one and have barely even finished writing it? 

I'm guessing there is no definite answer to questions like those. But I think if I have ideas for more about the character in the first book, I should write them when I think of them. Or am I just thinking too far ahead?


Those of you who have written sequels, how long did it take you  to decide to do so? 


My idea for a  sequel to my WIP is to have my main character having anxiety about turning 13. He was similar riddled with anxiety over having to get braces in the still-untitled first book. This could work as a story in itself.

Reading Challenge Progress This Year So Far

Already near the end of June, meaning the year is already half-over. It just seems to be flying by fast.

Around this time of year, I like to take a look at how much I have read this year to date and how many of my reading challenges I have completed up to this point. I'm always uncertain how much longer to go on with the open-ended, year-long challenges, but I often like to keep going till December on these ones. As far as some of the checklist and bingo ones go, I have a tendency to finish some of those before the year is half-over and this year is no exception.

What's in a Name

This seems to always be the first one I finish each year. Then again there are only six categories. 


Color-Coded

 

Another that I tend to finish fast as well, with only nine categories.

Blydyn Square Books

I can't believe how quickly I got done with this one. It has 18 prompts, but most of them aren't very hard to fill.

Back to the Classics

Just last night I  completed all 12 categories in this one. It is not required to complete each category, but the more you read for this one, the more chances you have of getting entered in the drawing for an Amazon gift card. I like to complete all the categories. 

On several of the other checklist and blog challenges I am doing, I have one or two books left to complete the challenge. On both the AtoZ  and Alphabet Soup challenges, I have one letter left, the hardest one of all--X. If you have any suggestions, let me know.  And I'm not sure how many holiday-themed books I'll be reading over the summer, as Holiday Season is the only category I have left on Full House.

As seems to always be true, some of the challenges I have signed up for this year seem to have disappeared. Either the link to the challenge or the blog hosting it just suddenly gets deleted. The link to the Read the Rainbow challenge has disappeared, although the blog is still around. And I was annoyed to see the Mental Illness Advocacy challenge deleted before the year even began. I have enjoyed doing that one since it's a subject close to me. I looked for a similar challenge, but to no avail. I now think I will start one for 2019. And I also have begun to think about which of my challenges to offer next year. The Literary Loners one didn't get many signups this year, so that one may have to go. It was the first one I ever created and hosted. Not sure about the others just yet. though I definitely want to do the memoir one again. I will begin deciding this at the beginning of fall, when the sign ups for challenges start to around. 

And I just discovered that the blog hosting the seasonal bingo has been deleted again. As always  I hate it when this happens, and now I'm uncertain whether to continue reading for this one, as a lot of the categories are very tempting.

And as of today I have read 146 books this year already.

SaveSaveSaveSave
SaveSave