Confessions of a Literary God

Sirion · Aug 7, 2008

A shocking 1972 BBC interview with J.R.R. Tolkien:

Interviewer: It was finally finished just before it was published...

Tolkien: I wrote the last ... in about 1949 - I remember I actually wept at the denouement. But then of course there was a tremendous lot of revision. I typed the whole of that work out twice and lots of it many times, on a bed in an attic. I couldn't afford of course the typing. There's some mistakes too and also [relights pipe] it amuses me to say, as I suppose I'm in a position where it doesn't matter what people think of me now - there were some frightful mistakes in grammar, which from a Professor of English Language and Lit are rather shocking.

Interviewer: I hadn't noticed any.

Tolkien: There was one where I used bestrode as the past participle of bestride!

I don't know if I can ever look at another Tolkien writing the same way again, and every time I come across that "bestrode" I'll shed a tear.

Seriously though, the Lord of the Rings was finished in the 1940s, which means that error was so enormous and "shocking" (as he put it) in Tolkien's mind that he remembered it vividly almost 30 years later. Tolkien typed his works out by hand, and no spell-check I might add, twice! Note that The Lord of the Rings trilogy is 1,216 pages long, encompassing hundreds of thousands of words (if it was anyone else but him, I would be surprised that *that* is the biggest error).

So, have any of you ever published material, or sent material off to an agent or editor, only to re-glance over it and find something so obviously terrible, that you wished you could snatch the e-mail out of their computer and fix it?

-Travis

Fillanzea · Aug 7, 2008

I wrote a paper for a class that I ended up submitting to a journal at my prof's suggestion. When it appeared in print, I discovered - on perhaps the fourth or fifth time looking over it - that I had switched the given name and family name of one of my sources. So embarrassing!

Appalachian Writer · Aug 7, 2008

I had a short story published in a local literary magazine. Like Tolkien, I'm an English professor (well, maybe not exactly like Tolkien, but I am a professor). Anyway, I picked up my copy of the mag and hurried home to see my name in print. There it was, glaring up at me from the pages: a comma splice! How did I not see that? What was going on with the editor? That was EIGHT years ago, and I still grimmace everytime I pass the shelf where that mag sits.

Red-Green · Aug 7, 2008

The most exciting acceptance I ever got--from a prestigious lit mag--came nine months after I'd subbed the story. Six months after I'd realized what utter crap it was and revised it. So...big break-through publication was of a story I was completely ashamed of by the time it went to press. The mag wouldn't take my revision.

SPMiller · Aug 7, 2008

Typewriting? If we limit ourselves to just that, I've done Tolkien one better: I handwrote all the material used in the first draft of my first novel. And that's not counting all the stuff I handwrote that didn't even make it into the first draft. And I handwrite pretty much everything before I type it into any computer.

(Granted, I'm aware of all the handwriting Tolkien did as well...)

Charlie Horse · Aug 7, 2008

SPMiller said:
Typewriting? If we limit ourselves to just that, I've done Tolkien one better: I handwrote all the material used in the first draft of my first novel. And that's not counting all the stuff I handwrote that didn't even make it into the first draft. And I handwrite pretty much everything before I type it into any computer.

(Granted, I'm aware of all the handwriting Tolkien did as well...)

No offense, but that's :crazy:

.

I only say that because a) my handwriting sucks and b) I have nowhere near the patience to write more than a few pages by hand before I'm ready to start twisting the heads off Barbie dolls.

citymouse · Aug 7, 2008

Hell yes! I sent of a MS with a missing word. I missed it. The editor missed it and it went out to market. It seems no one has noticed except one reader who thought I had done it on purpose.

I just read a Steve Berry book where melange was used where it is clear he or the editor intended melee.
Stuff happens.
C

maestrowork · Aug 7, 2008

The biggest mistakes I made usually are missing the "not"s -- I don't know why, but if I mean to say "he's not a pedophile" it would come out as "he's a pedophile." Ouch! There were a couple times when I had to fix things after the piece was published, sometimes after a few weeks!

I also had a glaring spelling error but didn't catch it until all the way AFTER galleys. Fortunately I caught it before the book went to print.

joyofcooking · Aug 7, 2008

No, I haven't had this problem upon sending things out. Although I did incorrectly spell someone's first name in a poem once.
___________________________

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Drill here. Drill now. Don't see any difference in the pump price for years. Expose environment to oil spills. Get to work on a comprehensive energy plan for the US instead. Go Obama.

MaryMumsy · Aug 7, 2008

I have noticed a lot of things missed by editors in the past few years. It seems to be more of a problem in the books of best-selling authors rather than newbies or authors who are steady sellers, but not 'stars'. As a reader, I find it very annoying. I don't necessarily fault the author (although, don't they proof their galleys?), but it seems some of the editors have gotten lazy. Oh well, at least the books are getting published.

MM

citymouse · Aug 7, 2008

MM, I agree that books are getting published and better still they're read.
Errors do slip into print even with multiple readings. As far as galleys go, for me they are a drudge. I look at them for interior specs. I make sure the acknowledgments are properly noted. I once found where an editor decided to change chapters from numerals to words. That wouldn't have been so bad but chapters that she/he intended to read as Forty-One, Forty-Two, etc became Fourty-One, Fourty-Two, and so forth. I insisted on a return to numerals. Much less difficult to screw up.
That said, I do not read the galleys. In fact I've never read any of my books once they are on sale.
C

MaryMumsy said:
I have noticed a lot of things missed by editors in the past few years. It seems to be more of a problem in the books of best-selling authors rather than newbies or authors who are steady sellers, but not 'stars'. As a reader, I find it very annoying. I don't necessarily fault the author (although, don't they proof their galleys?), but it seems some of the editors have gotten lazy. Oh well, at least the books are getting published.

MM

Cybernaught · Aug 7, 2008

It happens to the best of them. Fortunately, a lot of people are in the right place in their careers where it doesn't matter as much. Since I'm an amateur, merely simple mistakes are met with a quick rejection, so I tend to proofread my piece at least five times before submitting it.

CheshireCat · Aug 7, 2008

MaryMumsy said:
I have noticed a lot of things missed by editors in the past few years. It seems to be more of a problem in the books of best-selling authors rather than newbies or authors who are steady sellers, but not 'stars'. As a reader, I find it very annoying. I don't necessarily fault the author (although, don't they proof their galleys?)...
MM

Yes. Sometimes two sets of them (if many changes are made in the first pass).

And, usually, the pub gets at least two "fresh" sets of eyes to proof the galleys. Typos and errors get past all of us.

MaryMumsy · Aug 7, 2008

I'm not talking about simple typos. I'm talking about things like referring to a major, dead, character by another character's name. Or a change in the character's eye color from the bottom on page 44 to the top of page 45. Or a change from book 3 to book 7 as to the cause of death of a major character's wife. I can more easily accept typos/homonym (they're/their, reign/rein) issues than I can significant continuity glitches.

MM

blacbird · Aug 7, 2008

Tolkien's publishing history is in many ways an anomaly. The more typical case is mine:

You write stuff, submit it for publication, and it is either rejected, or ignored.
You write stuff, submit it for publication, and it is either rejected, or ignored.
You write stuff, submit it for publication, and it is either rejected, or ignored.
You write stuff, submit it for publication, and it is either rejected, or ignored.
You write stuff, submit it for publication, and it is either rejected, or ignored.
You write stuff, submit it for publication, and it is either rejected, or ignored.
You write stuff, submit it for publication, and it is either rejected, or ignored.
You write stuff, submit it for publication, and it is either rejected, or ignored.
You write stuff, submit it for publication, and it is either rejected, or ignored.
You write stuff, submit it for publication, and it is either rejected, or ignored.
You write stuff, submit it for publication, and it is either rejected, or ignored.
. . .

Eventually you say, why bother? And hang it up.

caw

Moonfish · Aug 7, 2008

I was reading through my published book a few months back and to my horror saw that what should have been the door to the study suddenly was the kitchen door! Which makes no sense! ARRRRRRGGHHHHHHH.

C.M. Daniels · Aug 7, 2008

Heh, I worked on my MA thesis for two years. It wasn't until after it had been bound and in the library, that I found an error. It makes me cringe, just thinking about it. But, by the point I turned in my final draft, my committee members and I had been through it so many times, no one noticed. Oops.

CheshireCat · Aug 8, 2008

MaryMumsy said:
I'm not talking about simple typos. I'm talking about things like referring to a major, dead, character by another character's name. Or a change in the character's eye color from the bottom on page 44 to the top of page 45. Or a change from book 3 to book 7 as to the cause of death of a major character's wife. I can more easily accept typos/homonym (they're/their, reign/rein) issues than I can significant continuity glitches.

MM

Yes, continuity errors, one would think, are easier to spot and a good ce should catch them even if the rest of us miss them. Bottom line, though, we're all dealing with a manuscript we've seen, read, and worked on so many times that we tend to see what we believe is there rather than what is there. And the ce has a styles sheet filled with names and other info she has to keep straight. On top of that, changes are made at the galley stage, after the ce has done her work, and those changes can easily result in continuity errors.

On the last book I did, I consistently misspelled a major character's name throughout the manuscript (flipping back and forth between using a c and using an s in his name). Both spellings were correct but, obviously, only one was right. Weirdly, I didn't see that, and was shocked to see how many times the ce had to correct it in the manuscript.

I've been at this a long time, and I can tell you that with the best will in the world, and every effort we all make, errors still crop up in the finished books.

:Shrug:

You wince a lot. And try harder the next time.

Straka · Aug 8, 2008

I've notice some typos in books recently, but I wondered if those were do to a mistake on the part publisher. Do they just take an author's word file and print it or are there still typesetters and all that jazz?

Red-Green · Aug 8, 2008

I had a thesis error, too. I surreptitiously fixed it in the library's copy with some white out and a marginal notation. Obsessive much?

C.M. Daniels said:
Heh, I worked on my MA thesis for two years. It wasn't until after it had been bound and in the library, that I found an error. It makes me cringe, just thinking about it. But, by the point I turned in my final draft, my committee members and I had been through it so many times, no one noticed. Oops.

Confessions of a Literary God

Sirion

practical experience, FTW

Fillanzea

Appalachian Writer

Somewhere in the hills....

Red-Green

KoalaKoalaKoala!

SPMiller

Prodigiously Hanged

Charlie Horse

Speaking in metaphors

citymouse

fantasy dweller

maestrowork

Fear the Death Ray

joyofcooking

MaryMumsy

the original blond bombshell

citymouse

fantasy dweller

Cybernaught

Decker

CheshireCat

Mostly purring. Mostly.

MaryMumsy

the original blond bombshell

blacbird

Moonfish

C.M. Daniels

Cinnamon, sit. Bad fish!

CheshireCat

Mostly purring. Mostly.

Straka

Bored Fanatic

Red-Green

KoalaKoalaKoala!