After awhile, you get to where you don't see the errors due to the repetition. I helped PB with the original Notes Of A Journey trilogy as posted on Maddy Bell's website and am now posting the revised stories on Big Closet. In spite of the best efforts of PB, myself and several others, some errors are still making it through. It's not that big a deal.

Remember, even the pros make mistakes. Case in point, last spring a major sporting goods chain offered a handgun on sale in their national advertising. This was a multi-page flyer that was produced by their advertising agency and printed by a national printer. I wonder how many people tried to buy one of the semi-automatic pistol which was listed as being available in 9mm, 10mm and 40mm S&W. Obviously, that should have been 40 cal. S&W, it would take one of the Supers to use a 40mm as a handgun. :-)

Shit happens. If you are concerned, enlist the assistance of a couple of test readers to check for those details. I'm sure you'd get lots of volunteers. Just don't ask John in W-land, his spelling is atrocious! ;-)

Personally, I'd rather read a story from JulieO or one of your chapters of Zapped, errors and all, over some stories that are perfect in every respect except they are perfect garbage.

"Being a girl is wonderful and to torture someone into that would be like the exact opposite of what it's like. I don’t know how anyone could act that way." College Girl - poetheather

Bob,

I'm an engineer, and half my time is spent writing. I've also spent the odd moment scratching out a story or two.

I find that my ability to miss the obvious increases with document size and number of passes. You get to the point where you *expect* to see certain things, even if they're not there.

I find that, unless I have a couple of sets of eyes, I miss things that are 'slap the forehead' obvious.

You aren't slipping; you're just human.

Nicole (a.k.a. Itinerant)

--
"Power corrupts. Powerpoint corrupts absolutely."

- Edward R. Tufte, professor emeritus of political science, Computer science and statistics, and graphic design at Yale

Way better than most could have.

As I commented earlier and also privately over at BC, I only noticed two continuity errors and they weren't that bad and should prove easy to fix. If there were a lot of proofing errors, I didn’t notice as I had an enjoyable and smooth reading experience. I make far more errors myself on a far less complex storyline in Timeout.

With four previous Fresh Start/Coeds stories and multiple other Jullieverse storylines and characters, coming into it this story was an almost Herculean task to keep totally straight.

If my comments in anyway upset or discouraged you, I am sorry. I meant to tell you how impressed I was. As a writer and as a proofer you have shown great improvement since your earliest posts of Zapped. Even with the glitches in the early posts is was, and remains, a good read. You say you wrote maybe ten or so pages of material for this latest Coeds but I’ll take Jen anyway I can.

190 pages is a lot of material to keep straight let alone find all the errors. You did well.

I look forward to more.

If any of us stomped on you, Bob, remember us TG fiction readers are a strange lot and sometimes quick to react and slower to reflect.

I wish you well and am sorry if any of my comments felt like criticism, they were never intended as such.

John in Wauwatosa

P.S. I thought Coeds 3: Anasazi Summer a great tale.

P.P.S. What did you say, Karen_J, my speeeling , spellung, speel ... Oh nerver mynd!

But you're not a scientist. Surely you believe in all this superstitious nonsense. (MAD Magazine)

Could be worse, could be raining. (Young Frankenstein)

My earliest posts of Timeout got proofed -- HAH!-- by me then posted to your Crystal Hall site. The readers there noticed many goofs which I fixed. Months later, embarased, I reproofed, fixed paragraphs and such and posted again.

Then I decided to post to BC but before I did I had my sister, who proofs and publishes our bank newsletter, assists on a geology/lapidary/fossil club newsletter and has done danged near everything for our Doctor Who club newsletter for well over a decade, gave them a run through and found lots of stuff wrong. She found spelling, comma, paragraph errors, a ton of stuff.and fixed it.

Around this time Itinerant was helping with the later posts then Janet Nolan came along and offered to help. She proofed yet again the stuff my sister had proofed and I had posted and found additional errors which she fixed.

I posted to BC and Holly Logan/Hart couldn’t resist the chalenge and gave the whole first Timeout series, and others later, a major overhaul and found another truckload of errors.

I have looked at it and she missed a few things I spotted after getting away from it for many months.

190 pages is a LOT of pages and I know my mind *fixes* errors as I read without bothering to mention it to me.

You are not old and past it, you are human. Quite bashing yourself.

Um that should be 'Quit bashing your self.' Ack another typo!

John in Wauwatosa

But you're not a scientist. Surely you believe in all this superstitious nonsense. (MAD Magazine)

Could be worse, could be raining. (Young Frankenstein)

To the choir. To err is human. All of us who write knows that. Even in professional New York Times Best Sellers I've found them. In my poor works the damn errors are rampant even after like John from W. I've had legions go over the darn thing. Please don't be hard on yourself for missing stuff. I loved this story and like Karen says I would rather read ones as good as this with errors than perfect ones done by others. So be quiet and write!!!

Hugs!

grover

I hate it. I truly do. You CANNOT read the story. Never. It is not possible to read and proof at the same time. The eyes see things and the brain interpets them. The brain automatically fills in small holes, and zips right on past things that it "fixes" as it goes. To edit something, you have to just sit down and see word for word what is on the paper. It is harder on screen. If you get into the story as it sits, you lose objectivity as the interest grows. Break it into parts, and do them out of order. Put it back together and repeat. Then try doing it all in order. Something short like a Gaby story is easy, as it is done in UK english, and the eye recoils from things that are just not right. And they are short enough to finish before the interest takes control. Trying to do one at 190 pages is asking for trouble. If you go through the steps and pass it to a second person, and then on to a third etc, the 10th person will still find things. The author should never try it, The author knows what is supposed to be there, and the mind sees it as it should be, and someone close to the story will have a hard time. It tends to ruin a story for you if you do this. The only way is to do it, and then go away from it, and then come back in a few months, and then enjoy it, after some of the memories fade. My hat is off to anyone that tries to edit a story, and more so to the people that actually write them, and those involved in proofing one after the editors are done. Unless you are paid to sit and do it it is a time consuming, and hard job. To those that do....thank you, and I would never complain or mention something, unless it was a MAJOR something that was a glaring incontinuity. And looking at Julie's page BTW, shows just how many stories she has done. And I think there are a couple not posted here. (I could be wrong). It is amazing how much she has done, in such a short actual time, developing the characters, and the storylines, and then making so many of them come together, and working together back and forth. It is amazing to contemplate, and my thanks go out to her for the awesome work, and massive amount of entertainment she has provided us all, and at such a small cost....time of reading.

Who will Julie O rely upon and will you quit posting stories? Me, I post stories and help a few authors with their stories by correcting their spelling, punctuation, and at times, redoing a sentence to have it read better. Maybe I'm lucky in that I've had very few readers show me a typo.
I say continue, you have a gift of writing and helping others too.
May Your Light Forever Shine