Help!

[sophinisba]

Last week I reread a fic of mine that I'd posted a few months ago. I still like the story a lot, but I was distressed to find several typos and one real misspelling. I thought about putting up a post begging readers to inform me any time they noticed an error in one of my fics. But then I thought, Why should they bother to do such a nice thing for me? And, How do they know that I'm serious about wanting to know?

So, I'm going to try out a new policy/challenge: Anyone who e-mails me pointing out two or more mistakes in one of my fics gets a free drabble on a fictional character or pairing of her or his choice. (My address is sophinisba at gmail.com; a comment on LJ works too.) This is extending to all fics old and new, wherever they're posted (unless it's somewhere where I can't fix them), until I take it back. If you write to me about just one mistake I'll still be grateful but I might not give you a drabble. And this applies to clear-cut technical mistakes like spelling, missing quotation marks, etc., although I'm also interested to know if you disagree with me on more substantive stuff like canon and characterization.

And if I apply this retroactively, I owe a drabble to mews1945 for helping me out with one of my first Faculty ficlets. Julia, anything in particular you'd like?

Comments

[baranduin.livejournal.com]

Oh, it makes me crazy to find typos in old fics of mine! Back when I used to post fic on Yahoo groups, I was forever deleting and reposting on account of always finding one typo after I'd posted.

Excellent offer!

[sophinisba]

Yes, I'm excited about this plan. It helps me find errors *and* gives me stuff to write drabbles about. And it's nice and easy to fix things on LJ. I hope people take me up on this.

not yourself

[(Anonymous)]

where is it, the "Not Yourself"? Did I miss the ending?

Re: not yourself

[sophinisba]

Ah, no. *blushes* Unfortunately it is not finished! I thought it was when I started posting, but then I realized it needed a 12th chapter and I, er, haven't managed to write that one yet, though I do have a plan. What's up so far is on the Not Yourself tag.

Thank you for reading and hello and welcome. Are you new or did you just forget to sign in?

Re: not yourself

[(Anonymous)]

Thanks so much for responding when I know I am all over the place and have no idea of etiquette! Yes, I am very new to all this,but stumbled upon the "Not Yourself" in pure serendipity, and then searching for it again, stumbled over even more of your beautiful writing! So I guess I am hooked! It's a nice world to be in, thanks.

[mariole.livejournal.com]

Sorry, Sophie! You were very helpful with Devoted, I should return the favor.

I noticed a serious error in your PWP for Dana, http://sophinisba.livejournal.com/56518.html

Error: This story is WAY too short.

For pointing out this hideous, nigh-unforgivable mistake, I request a drabble of three-way hot sex between Aragorn/Frodo/Boromir. I'm sure I can find equally useful suggestions to make after reading that one. :) Cheers.

[sophinisba]

Ah, no worries! It was certainly reward enough to feel like I was doing something useful, since I was a frightened newbie at the time.

Excellent point about the Frodo/Pippin PWP. I will do my best to remedy that by writing a full-length, NC-17 F/M/P for Dana's birthday. Unfortunately, since this is only one mistake, it doesn't make the rules for the challenge although I think I have a bunny for the A/F/B omg.

[mariole.livejournal.com]

I completely understand you want to write the A/F/B drabble that I do not meet the minimal criteria you want to write the A/F/B drabble for a drabble. Your offer you want to write the A/F/B drabble is very generous, and I hope that others you want to write the A/F/B drabble take advantage of your talent, because then I can read it, too! and after you finish the A/F/B you want to write a Frodo/Eomer drabble, and if you throw in Faramir that's fine by me

[sophinisba]

meeps

[mariole.livejournal.com]

heh heh heh...

[sophinisba]

I think Boromir's gonna have to be tied up omg.

[mariole.livejournal.com]

*pants*

[sophinisba]

You and Boromir both. http://sophinisba.livejournal.com/58267.html

[mews1945.livejournal.com]

Casey and Zeke at a beach resort? A little sunburn, a little romance back in their room? If that's too much, just the beach scene will be just fine. Oh, goody! *hugs in advance*

[sophinisba]

Sunburn sounds very nice! I'll see what I can do! Thanks again for being such a careful reader. :D

[mews1945.livejournal.com]

Oh, and you know that goes for me too, right? If you see any typos in any of my stuff. please let me know. Can't promise a drabble, but I'll be really grateful.

[sophinisba]

Yes, I know that you're a careful writer, and I'll let you know if I see anything. No drabbles necessary!

[slightlytookish]

I've wondered about this. There are times when I've immediately fired off an email or comment about a typo I've discovered, and at other times I've been more hesitant. I wouldn't want to embarrass someone. So thanks for clearing this one up, and if I ever notice anything I'll let you know, drabble offer or not :)

[sophinisba]

I used to do it more around the time I was coming out in LJ. I didn't think I'd write much fic of my own at the time and I wanted to be useful somehow. Some people (like Mariole) were really receptive to that but then I had a few somewhat awkward situations, so I don't do it as much now. Thank you!

[mother2012.livejournal.com]

I recognize the 'awkward situations' - had a few myself for similar reasons. And I too basically gave up on pointing things out.

[sophinisba]

Yeah, at this point I mostly only do it with people I know pretty well, and where I've seen them react to other people's corrections and I know they really will appreciate it.

[gentlehobbit.livejournal.com]

Well, as I love proofreading, and have been known to be quite picky, I thought I'd try out one of your stories. However, I found that it was quite hard to track down any typos or grammar errors. There were a few sentence fragments and sentences beginning with conjunctions (and, but); however, I could see that those were deliberate and part of the style of story-telling. I didn't bother to note those.

I did, however, catch two items. The first one you might not choose to accept, but the other needs fixing!

There! I feel triumphant in catching something! :D

"Conspiratorial fic"
http://sophinisba.livejournal.com/27215.html

1. "It's to do with the ring, yes?"

This isn't exactly an error (depending on how you view it), but once the Ring has been given importance in the eyes of the speaker, and simply called "the Ring", the R is customarily capitalized (customarily, that is, by Tolkien.)

2. "Ah, well, that's the last thing Frodo needs in a time of crisis, isn't it? His cousin and his gardener at each other's throats." He grinned. "Don't worry, Sam, I know how to handle him; though you can't leave it all to me either. From what I understand we have a few months left before we need to leave, so you and Merry have time to get more comfortable around each other before we're all sleeping under the stars together and deciding who carries how much in his pack.

Aha! You forgot the closing quotation marks.

So, there you go. One error, or 1.5, or even two full errors if you're feeling generous. :)

(While I like to proofread my stories and keep them 'clean' so-to-speak, one of my weaknesses is in closing quatation marks and also parentheses. Argh!)

[gentlehobbit.livejournal.com]

Of course, there are also momentary problems in spelling "quotation"!

;)

[sophinisba]

Goodness, I'm impressed. You definitely get a drabble for this (if you want one), even though I'm only planning on fixing one of the things you mentioned. I am indeed feeling generous. Just let me know what you'd like (though I may be a little slow).

Good points, all of these. I am fond of my sentence fragments and even more so of my sentences starting with conjunctions. If you ever read some of my slash you'll find that in the sex scenes just about every sentence begins with "And" and that most of them are run-ons! That is just part of my style though, as you guessed. I don't think my stories would flow very well without them.

About the Ring: I know I did think about this at the time I was writing and posting, though I've thought about it some more tonight. I think I'm going to stand by the lowercase R because at this point in my story Merry isn't aware that this is the One Ring. He knows it has some importance, yes, but he knows somewhat less about it than Frodo knows at the beginning of "The Shadow of the Past" (right up to the point where Gandalf recognizes the writing on it) where it's referred to as the ring. He knows it's the ring that Bilbo brought back from his travels and that makes him invisible, but he doesn't know it's the One Ring. That's my feeling anyway, but if you want to try to convince me have at it! I know you know the books a lot better than I do. (And thanks, by the way, for not taking me up on issues of canon in this particular story. I have some angst associated with the posting of it, as you could probably tell from the author's notes and some of the comments.)

Quotation marks omg!!! I forget them all the time. That was one of the things I found in the story I reread last week. That and spelling "to" as "too". Arrrrgh! I will fix this as soon as I get this comment posted. Thank you so much!

[sophinisba]

Also! When I went back to fix the thing you mentioned, I found a missing period! And a missing title! Arrrgh! (And again, thank you.)

[gentlehobbit.livejournal.com]

While I rarely use sentence fragments, I agree that they can be effective. However, I am just as fond of beginning sentences with conjunctions! I adore those bold conjunctions. They do give a flow to the writing that other words rarely manage. Tolkien loved them, and they seem to also give a bit of that mythological grandeur in writing.

I won't try to convince you about capitalizing the 'r' in the Ring. You've obviously thought about what it represents to you, and I think 'fair enough'! :)

I don't know which stories other people have proofread for you, but I'm willing to try another if there is one you'd particularly like to have looked at. :)

Ooooh! I do get a drabble? Yum! :)

I'd love to read something intense -- angst or h/c that is Quest-related/canon.

Thank you!

[sophinisba]

I'm not looking to have anyone proofread particular stories (except for the beta reader, and I do usually use one). It's more a general plea, that if you're reading something of mine and happen to notice a problem you'll e-mail me rather than keep it to yourself.

While we're talking capitalization though, do you have any thoughts on elf versus Elf, orcs versus Orcs, etc?

I like your drabble request, as I do enjoy the intense angst. I'm thinking post-Weathertop maybe.

[lilybaggins.livejournal.com]

Wow, I think every writer should be so willing to take constructive criticism. So refreshing. :)

[sophinisba]

It's working like gangbusters so far. I owe two (or maybe three, depending on what happens to the A/F/B crack!bunny) new drabbles and have fixed a letter and two punctuation marks. :D Seriously, I don't know how much substantive concrit I could really handle because I'm afraid it might make me freeze up creatively. But for a no-brainer like a spelling mistake? I definitely want to know.

[lilybaggins.livejournal.com]

Yep, I don't care for constructive criticism much either, unless it's over my writing style. But criticism over the plot or characterization---while I know I've deserved it many times---would probably make me scared to write anymore, which I am already.