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

[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.