#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 Always check for the word boundaries
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@owent @alicemcalicepants @nullcolaship @davidtheeviloverlord @cstross Is there any course for refrock?
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@owent @alicemcalicepants @nullcolaship @davidtheeviloverlord @cstross "buttbuttination of the ambbuttador"…
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@owent That’s it, I’m calling the things covering my legs occutrousers from now on.
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@owent @alicemcalicepants @nullcolaship @davidtheeviloverlord @cstross "buttbuttination of the ambbuttador"…
@blotosmetek @owent @alicemcalicepants @nullcolaship @davidtheeviloverlord @cstross I heard about the book that replaced "mage" with Wizard" and someone ended up gazing at a painted iwizard...
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@owent That’s it, I’m calling the things covering my legs occutrousers from now on.
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@cstross
The good old "dawizard" from D&D comes to mind.
Hint for the unitiated: 4d6 dawizard.@towo@chaos.social @cstross@wandering.shop wait, it's 4 d6?
I've been having them roll 40 6! -
@owent @alicemcalicepants @nullcolaship @davidtheeviloverlord @cstross
I get the impression that occutrousers are a good thing, at least in this case. Though I can imagine that if different occutrousers replaced these it would be very bad.
@Retreival9096 @owent @alicemcalicepants @nullcolaship @cstross
Occutrousers are what the well-dressed octopus gentleman wears.
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@owent @alicemcalicepants @nullcolaship @davidtheeviloverlord @cstross
It's only slightly annoying when unoccutrousers fall down, but mortifying when one's occutrousers fall down. -
@owent @alicemcalicepants @nullcolaship @davidtheeviloverlord @cstross
It's only slightly annoying when unoccutrousers fall down, but mortifying when one's occutrousers fall down.@dragonfrog @owent @alicemcalicepants @nullcolaship @cstross
If an octopus gentleman's occutrousers fall down, everyone can see his tentacles!
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@alicemcalicepants @nullcolaship @davidtheeviloverlord @cstross yu. I changed a character's name from Roy to Fred, and had him sailing up the Channel in a destfreder.
@robparsons @alicemcalicepants @nullcolaship @davidtheeviloverlord @cstross And this is how a certain right-wing newspaper came to run an article about the American athlete, Tyson Homosexual.
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@owent @alicemcalicepants @nullcolaship @davidtheeviloverlord @cstross it's the wrong occutrousers, and they've gone wrong!
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@owent @alicemcalicepants @nullcolaship @davidtheeviloverlord @cstross Clear case of idiot editor. Because one obviously can be space sensitive and only replace " pants " with " trousers " and th[e]n this should be no problem.
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@cstross Always check for the word boundaries
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@owent @alicemcalicepants @nullcolaship @davidtheeviloverlord @cstross another book did this and resulted in particitrousers...
@quixoticgeek @owent @alicemcalicepants @nullcolaship @davidtheeviloverlord @cstross
Someoneneeds to pad theirsearch terms with appropriate whitespace (hi, @edwinb - who really understands whitespace). -
@owent @alicemcalicepants @nullcolaship @davidtheeviloverlord @cstross another book did this and resulted in particitrousers...
"It's the wrong trousers, Gromit!"
(That said, there now needs to be a protest-movement called Occutrousers. The name just says something definitive about careless use of technology. (See also: "cdesign proponentsists"))
@alicemcalicepants @nullcolaship @davidtheeviloverlord @cstross
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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.
I do know that by the time I hand over the manuscript to my copy editor, I have read it myself three times, with multiple months passing between the readings.
