Can anything be perfect?

Is perfection another thing that’s in the eye of the beholder? How do you rate art on a perfection scale?

Well maybe you can’t.

I had to snigger this morning when  read a Tweet by an author I really like Jonathan Tropper.

This is what he said, ” Nothing like a vigilant copy editor to make you feel borderline illiterate.”

The reason I laughed is because I like to think of myself as a perfectionist and go to ridiculous lengths  sometimes to double-check things, spend hours making sure facts are right, and all the nitty gritty of the narrative being right … and then a proof-reader or an editor looks at it and finds all these silly errors. Groan. When I saw what the proof-reader picked up with the Wild n Free book I thought am I really that incompetent?

Apparently. Sometimes 😦  Actually it’s all perfectly normal as Jonathan Tropper proves. And when you employ someone to look at your work they are looking at it in a different way to you. I look at other peoples’ work differently to my own, and I’m being paid to spot this stuff too. But with my own, then I would pay someone else to spot what I didn’t and I have a great critique group for that as well!

It’s being too close to it, your mind fills in the errors, well certainly when it comes to typos.

Ever seen those things that look like this:   i cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno’t mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghi t pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh?

It shows how much the mind fills in and therefore is it any wonder a lot of typos are missed because the mind sees what it wants to see!

Well that’s my excuse!

There are all sorts of errors, double spaces, inverted speech marks, double dashes that should be en dashes, hyphens that should be en dashes … things we don’t even think about. Not to mention clichés and clunky sentences that see alright at the time!

What I’m saying is, do not be too disheartened when an editor or critiquer spots all sorts of errors. The better you get at writing  then the less you’ll make. And this is why you need to have work checked. Agents and publishers don’t expect perfection (well some might actually) but you won’t be rejected because you used a hyphen instead of an en dash, or a semi colon instead of a full stop. But fill it with loads of errors and it looks plain sloppy.

So apart from needing someone to look in detail at plot, voice, pacing, dialogue, characterisation etc, as I do when I critique, you also need someone to look for silly errors that creep in as well. If you’re new to writing, or even if you’re not, give yourself the best chance of getting accepted. Get an editor … and so what if it makes you feel as Jonathan Tropper puts it so well ‘illiterate’ at least someone is ironing out the creases.

But what this Tweet also told me was we are all human.

What is perfect?

Apart from our dreams … those are perfect. Keep them alive …

Have a great weekend y’all!

 

But I can try …