#WritersCoffeeClub Apr 24 Share a silly mistake you've made while writing.
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#WritersCoffeeClub Apr 24 Share a silly mistake you've made while writing.
Character name changes. If for some reason you change the name of a character you *really* need to double-check that it's changed *everywhere*. Hint: regular expressions and global *conditional* search/replace are your tools. Also how to manage word stemming with regexps. Then triple-check *everything*. Otherwise—guaranteed—you'll flip a character's name in one paragraph and the internet will never let you forget it!
@cstross Regular expressions are magic. Anyone who works with text should learn how to use them.
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I once changed a character's name from Allan to Ben, and later changed it back.
Reading through the manuscript, I found I had thus invented the Allanch seat.
@davidtheeviloverlord @cstross Ah, a true clbuttic!
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@davidtheeviloverlord @cstross Ah, a true clbuttic!
@nullcolaship @davidtheeviloverlord @cstross I once got some copy back from a (lovely, brilliant) academic who'd been promoted to Professor, so she'd find-and-replaced every instance of 'Dr' in the document, inventing the word 'professoriven' in the process
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PS to "silly mistakes": a common misconception is that copy editors will spot your silly mistakes. They might ... but then again, they might think the mistake was the authorial intention and let it pass. CEs vary wildly in their approach (never say competence) and your trad publisher's commissioning editor is busy managing workflow (editing gets done on the side, in their own time).
So don't rely on the editors cleaning up your messes.
@cstross You know who'll spot a lot of them? Your translator. Ask my authors. Why? I really have to take each sentence after the other. Just saying.
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#WritersCoffeeClub Apr 24 Share a silly mistake you've made while writing.
Character name changes. If for some reason you change the name of a character you *really* need to double-check that it's changed *everywhere*. Hint: regular expressions and global *conditional* search/replace are your tools. Also how to manage word stemming with regexps. Then triple-check *everything*. Otherwise—guaranteed—you'll flip a character's name in one paragraph and the internet will never let you forget it!
@cstross Back in the day, before her terfitude was common knowledge, I read a couple of translations of she-who-shall-not-be-named - partly to see how they handled things like names. (Catalan well - the Mirror of Erised using the Catalan word for 'desire' backwards; Greek, not so well - the mirror of Εριζεντ).
The Catalan translator kept the names of major characters, but localized minor ones: Colin Creevey became Pau Pauet in every instance but one. 20-odd years on, that's all I remember. -
@cstross You know who'll spot a lot of them? Your translator. Ask my authors. Why? I really have to take each sentence after the other. Just saying.
@SusanneDoering Correct, but the whole structure of the publishing industry is geared around keeping authors from meddling with the moving parts! (I've had to fight battles to be allowed to communicate with my translators before now!)
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@SusanneDoering Correct, but the whole structure of the publishing industry is geared around keeping authors from meddling with the moving parts! (I've had to fight battles to be allowed to communicate with my translators before now!)
@cstross I see. Well, I am lucky to work nearly exclusively for SP authors. I have been working for one or two smaller publishers, but even then I would protest if the plothole is too big or the names got confused or ...
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@cstross I see. Well, I am lucky to work nearly exclusively for SP authors. I have been working for one or two smaller publishers, but even then I would protest if the plothole is too big or the names got confused or ...
@SusanneDoering The issue with larger publishers is that they're cranking a sausage machine—they have to pump out *n* books a month, every month—and individual artisanal sausage-stuffers who make one sausage a year *can*t be allowed a turn on the handle or sooner or later they'll jam everyone else's sausages.
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@cstross Read a book with obviously naive search/replace "meter" with "metre" for internationalisation purposes. Resulting in new unit "perimetre".
@snap2grid @cstross You'd want to be careful if it mentioned electricity meters too. What you need is a conditional search&replace, one that asks you for every single occurrence. It's slower than full auto, but much less likely to end in disaster
(I'm now wondering if I have anything any more that provides this)
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#WritersCoffeeClub Apr 24 Share a silly mistake you've made while writing.
Character name changes. If for some reason you change the name of a character you *really* need to double-check that it's changed *everywhere*. Hint: regular expressions and global *conditional* search/replace are your tools. Also how to manage word stemming with regexps. Then triple-check *everything*. Otherwise—guaranteed—you'll flip a character's name in one paragraph and the internet will never let you forget it!
@cstross@wandering.shop I have a character which is about to knock on the door and enter the story, she has a proper name and is also known throughout the story by her (different) nickname. Nicknames are the way out!
This is her, drawn yesterday in a waiting room while very tediously waiting. Today I’m supposed to be doing other renderings of her to practice, and then a turnaround sheet (it’s solid black and white, no continuous tone, no grey, no halftone, just ink or not ink. So far done nothing today to contribute to this, I have to get on with things. -
@snap2grid @cstross You'd want to be careful if it mentioned electricity meters too. What you need is a conditional search&replace, one that asks you for every single occurrence. It's slower than full auto, but much less likely to end in disaster
(I'm now wondering if I have anything any more that provides this)
@bellinghman @snap2grid Libre Office (and Microsoft Word) both permit conditional search-and-replace (disguised as "change and find next"). Vi editors have had it all the way back to the 1970s, as has emacs.
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PS to "silly mistakes": a common misconception is that copy editors will spot your silly mistakes. They might ... but then again, they might think the mistake was the authorial intention and let it pass. CEs vary wildly in their approach (never say competence) and your trad publisher's commissioning editor is busy managing workflow (editing gets done on the side, in their own time).
So don't rely on the editors cleaning up your messes.
@cstross I bought Lev Grossman The Magicians ebook. The first word of the book is misspelled and it’s the protagonist’s name “Quenctin” Unimpressed. Then the pseudo Narnia explanation and my DNF circuit kicked in.
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@bellinghman @snap2grid Libre Office (and Microsoft Word) both permit conditional search-and-replace (disguised as "change and find next"). Vi editors have had it all the way back to the 1970s, as has emacs.
@cstross @snap2grid Ah, that's probably what I was thinking of, yes
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I once changed a character's name from Allan to Ben, and later changed it back.
Reading through the manuscript, I found I had thus invented the Allanch seat.
@davidtheeviloverlord @cstross I remember an early harry potter book where one of the characters said something apartmently.
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@davidtheeviloverlord @cstross I remember an early harry potter book where one of the characters said something apartmently.
@landley @davidtheeviloverlord @cstross What, without using the suffix -um?
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@nullcolaship @davidtheeviloverlord @cstross I once got some copy back from a (lovely, brilliant) academic who'd been promoted to Professor, so she'd find-and-replaced every instance of 'Dr' in the document, inventing the word 'professoriven' in the process
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@landley @davidtheeviloverlord @cstross What, without using the suffix -um?
@jmax @landley @davidtheeviloverlord @cstross s/apartment/flat/
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@owent @alicemcalicepants @nullcolaship @davidtheeviloverlord @cstross another book did this and resulted in particitrousers...
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@owent @alicemcalicepants @nullcolaship @davidtheeviloverlord @cstross another book did this and resulted in particitrousers...
@quixoticgeek @owent @alicemcalicepants @nullcolaship @davidtheeviloverlord @cstross I'm sorry, but this is hilarious.
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@owent @alicemcalicepants @nullcolaship @davidtheeviloverlord @cstross Obviously, your immediate course of action is to create an #occutrousers entry on #UrbanDictionary.
Edit: It exists. https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=occutrouser
