It's Thursday morning, one more day till the weekend!

Recently I've been reading a lot of books that required more attention to editing then was given. Not that all of my novels don't have mistakes but it's beyond me when gross mishaps happen. For instance, the all annoying- their, there, & they're- misspellings. A good editor would spot these like a fly in milk. Then there are the double words; these usually happen when the author has pulled words or sections out of the book to shorten or rewrite them- "He went to the to store". Okay, I can see the over look on the double words, sometimes. You can only reread something so many times before you become blind to its content.

My biggest pet peeve? Word repeat. This is when a word has been used in a sentence above and below. We're authors people! Find a different word! A man can only have, "chocolate eyes" and "six pack abs", a woman "luscious curves" and "passion" in her eyes, body, and hands, so many times. The reader gets bored.

As a rule, I highlight all my "favorite words". As a New Englander we tend to use, you know, that, which, decided, wicked, man, and my favorite, dude, a lot. It's in the way we talk and act. So, the first thing I do when starting the editing process is highlight these words and phases throughout the story. What a difference! In my first novel I was duded out by the end. LOL 

The lesson here? Put your work aside. Let is sit and settle in for a little bit before you start that all important editing. You don't want to be the author who is known as, "Gosh, I love so and so's books. It's too bad there's so many typos. It kinda takes away from the story." 

Have a sparkling day!
Rebecca Rose