I wish the authors would proofread

I read my stories about 6 or 7 times. I still let a 'not' for 'no' get through once in a while. Also, writers need to be aware that a word can be spelled right but have a different meaning.

Council and Counsel are perfect examples. Spell check will catch some of these, but not very many of them get corrected.

I no I am fortunet in halving a god proofraeder butt she dose tell me that she bearly has to korect anythin at all that I right. Any won re-choiring her eggselent surfaces shuld contact me fur father detales enklosing a S.A.E and czech payable to Blimp Offshore Accounts. c/o T.he Cayman Islands.

That is so true, even when going back to a story after it ages for a while. I really hate to have mistakes in my work, but proofreading is a bigger pain-in-the-ass than taking a spanking. I've just been trying to proofread a story of over 145,000 words and it's taken so long, I haven't even had time to start looking at the challenge stories yet. Every time I think I'm close to being done, I find something else wrong. I finally gave up hope of getting it perfect and posted the first few chapters (not here on this site). Hopefully, I might find time to run through subsequent chapters again before posting, but if I wait until I'm sure it's perfect, it will never be posted.

I apologise to those who were shocked by the word I used. I'm sorry I didn't look it up in the dictionary before typing it. I must say I was pretty shocked myself when reading a story in which objectionable words were used.

If a character in a story swears that to me is fine... it is just characterisation; as people in the real world can be coarse depending on where they live or their upbringing. So in that sense it is realistic characterisation.

HOWEVER if members/authors SWEAR on the FORUM that is an entirely different kettle of fish and this offence deserves thorough corporal punishment by the renown Miss Thrashbottom!!!!!!

Ordalie, in respect to your comment on typos or other story errors, to err is human and quite often spell checkers do change a word to something you hadn't intended haha!

I agree with what others have said regarding let the story sit for several days before coming back to it. if you do find yourself needing to re-edit, the same strategy should apply. Let it rest for a few more days before re-proofing it! Sometimes the editing process can cause authors to accidentally chop the wrong word here and there!

I can imagine that stories with the most errors, pointed out by Ordalie, were amongst the last minute entries as the authors had to rush their submissions ot meet the deadline. I was going to correct my typo in this line but decided to leave it to see if Ordalie spotted it hehehe!

When I read stories I forgive errors. we all make them at some point so there is no point getting in a flap over them! Erring is human, as it has been said so many times before and to forgive/overlook such errors is being a supportive, understanding fellow human!

*** please note, I made sure I corrected EVERY ERROR in this message before hitting send ha! Tho my mischievous side was tempted to leave several typos in (I tend to type fast and look at the keys rather than at what I am typing most of the time...whoops!)

Ordalie, you have made me paranoid that there are far more typos in this message other than the one I noticed and decided to leave, despite my stringent editing, of course!!!!

People don't swear? OMG. Where have I been?

If you find an error, click on the validation mark; it will bring up an error report, just fill it out and Februs will fix it. He'll even send you a thank you for bringing attention to it.

Several days is fine for the first pass to get the immediate glitches.

Going back a year later sometimes reveals a tale, or an approach, that is far better than the one out there in the wild.

I am not sure of the protocol, but on recently rereading tales I wrote a couple of years ago, I would be very happy to submit rewrites of them that contain the germ of the original ideas, but presented anew with fresh insight and detail missing from the original.

I rather enjoy some of the typos that get past the writers' checking processes. A couple from the current Challenge:

A girl caught red-handed with vodka by the Head Prefect:
"Hello, Miranda," she said weekly.

and a girl on trial, speaking to the magistrate:
"but I have to eat your honour or die."

I'm completely baffled here! What should it have been?