Tag: errors

Busted! By the (Grammar) Police

~ JodiLea

I was minding my own business, writing dialog, when suddenly my MS Word turned on me.  Up popped another window inside my Word document with Grammarly feedback. It took my breath away.

After writing for 45+ years, I find out, today, I have been using commas wrong.  Seriously?  I put them in the wrong place. Where I believe they need to go, they do not. Where I do not need them, Grammarly wants them to be.

I am not mad at the Grammarly software.  I paid for the Premier version to help me do the final edit of my novel. It sure is helping me improve my work.

I am shocked and ashamed by how much help I am needing.

The above numbers encircled in red are the number of mistakes found in my draft novel.  This means 1,860 items to take care of added to the embellishments and re-writes I knew about.  Holy Moly.

This disturbing revelation has certainly flattened my ego.  I know that I can’t spell and I’m the queen of passive voice.  I thought my punctuation was correct.  I also believed I knew how to match verbs with my nouns. I never heard of some of the grammatical terms the software claims I am in violation of.  Terms like “unclear antecedent”, and “Tautological phrase” were the reasons I got dinged.  The great thing about Grammarly is they at least will inform you of what the term means and give you examples to correct it.  No condescending attitude of an English teacher either!

BTW, after 30 minutes I whittled the error count to 1769 issues.   It’s a start.

If you like your writing examined under a microscope, check out the Grammarly website.

 

♥  TTFN  ♥

 

 

 

The Fermentation Process

~ JodiLea ~ 1 Comment

No, I am not making wine!  NoWine

I’m referring to my book. I have my completed outline/draft sitting in its folder – undisturbed. This is one of the most important steps for my pre-editing phase. Why?

Because I need to step back and remove myself from the story. I am anxious to edit and fix the multitude of errors, that I know are in there, so this is one of the most difficult steps I have.

For example, there is one major error I made in third chapter and I need to re-examine chapters before and after, and review my research notes to fix it. This will be a lot of work, and it must be done, therefore I want to do it and ‘get it over with’ so I can move on to areas more ‘fun’ to work on.

I must also get rid of a few ‘fun’ stuff in the story, or move it closer to the end. I, once again, have been overcome with romance. Not that there’s anything wrong with some romance going on. 😉

Anyway, I am keeping myself away from it all. Only jotting notes down if a brilliant idea pops into my head. (I’m still waiting…)  So, I plan to finish quilting my current quilt, cleaning out my office that is so cluttered I’m getting claustrophobic sitting in here.

I’ll get out and walk for a bit, while I can, a storm will be coming through and it will be rainy all week. Then settle in to watch my 49er’s beat the Saint’s, while munching on popcorn.

Anything but writing…

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photo credit: Leo Reynolds via photopin cc