Thursday, November 17, 2011

Book Bloopers

And THIS, friends, is why we have critique groups...


To edit out our stupid, stupid, STUPID mistakes!! Bahahahahahahaha!! 

By the way, if you don't get why this is bad, THAT's GOOD!... It prolly just means you're out of the loop with middle school locker room humor.

You are very mature. Go ahead... pat yourself on the back.

Heehee. 

So tell me... what stupid, oh-my-gosh-I'm-gunna-die-of-embarrassment writing mistakes have YOU made?! Spill it, peeps. I know I'm not the only one!! 

15 comments:

Joe Duncko said...

That was great, haha. I'm glad I haven't had anything that embarrassing sneak into my writing, but I'll keep innuendos in mind when I edit in the future~

Julie said...

Joe: luckily, only my fellow critiquers saw it ( :

Um, and okay... now everyone else in the blogging world too... but I couldn't help it! It was too funny to pass up!

*snort*

I love self deprecating humor ( :

Mandi said...

I found one when I went back and re-did some things in my WIP. I found out I wrote, "The package he was given was enormous in his hands." *face palm*

Of course some of my friends minds, (and married, btw) went straight into the gutter. *rolls eyes* You could hear them! Bangin' on the metal walls with their jokes. *sigh*

Then when I went back to change it, I found I couldn't make my hero carry it without THINKING about the jokes. So I had to have a chick do it because all I could think about was his "package". So I went even further and instead of calling it a package, I ended up going with "parcel" and ran the heck away from that area of my book.

This is also the reason why I don't let people read drafts until I'm COMPLETELY done and read through the whole thing myself at least once if not twice! LOL But I was majorly frustrated so I let some fresh eyes see it.

But if another person asks me how large the package is again I'll be forced to brush up on my shoe jokes.

Or throw a shoe. That idea is still pending. LOL

PK HREZO said...

Definitely not the only one! I make mistakes ALL the time and usually edit five or six times before I'm happy... even then I tend to find errors... but you bring up a good point. One person's slang may not be anothers. Even so, best to err on the side of caution. :)

Courtney Koschel said...

Hey Julie! Love your blog :)

I'll never forget when I was drafting my last novel. My MC's name was Luke. It was a dramatic scene where Luke had lost his memory and his mother was with him...she said, "Luke, I am your mother." I busted out laughing when I read it again, and then I changed it.

Julie said...

Mandi: HAHAHAHAHAHA!!! And I know EXACTLY how you feel! I spent the rest of the freakin' critique group time trying to figure out a way to say what I wanted to say WITHOUT sounding like my character wanted to take a dump, AND I COULD'T DO IT!! Everything I thought of had a bad connotation.

Now I'm thinkin' I might just chuck the whole sentence out.

Haha! Fun times writing ( :

P.s. I support shoe throwing.

Pk: So true! I didn't even THINK of this being crude when I was writing. (Probably partially because my characters are Scottish, and don't have the same slang as teenage boys). I was mortified when they pointed it out! SO funny! Its definitely good to have others review your work... if for no other reason than to give you a different perspective on slang! Haha!

Courtney: THANKS!! So happy you like it!

And seriously? I think I just snorted while laughing at your blooper. That is TOO stinkin' funny! I'll prolly be giggling about it for the rest of the day now... just sayin' ( :

Heather said...

ROTFL! I got tears in my eyes, I laughed so hard. Thank you, I needed that! Some of my bloopers have been that bad and worse, so bad in fact that I can't repeat them! Thank goodness for critique groups indeed!

KP said...

All I have to say is....you're welcome! LOL....I'm not innocent in the book blooper world so I cant wait to see what you find in mine :)

Julie said...

Heather: YAY!!! You're welcome ( : So glad to help spread the laughter! Also so glad I'm not the only one blooper-ing in my ms! Haha!

KP: Haha! What would I do without you, girl? ( :

S. L. Hennessy said...

Haha, oh Jules. I love book bloopers. Would you consider all the nodding in my manuscript to be a blooper? Hmmm...anyways, that's what critique groups are for. And BOY did you have us howling with that one :)

Bkloss said...

HAHAHAaaa!

I'm so far from mature, it's scary.

I've had these kinds of mistakes. Like "reeks havoc" (is the havoc stinky??) and then I realized I totally miss used further vs. farther and then I ABUSED the comma when dealing with plural possessive *hangs head*

if they had rulers, they'd slap my hands...digital slapping???

Jeremy Bates said...

too many to count! lol
im actually reading over the final typeset copy now and im freaked out im going to miss something and know i will!
(hopefully not the line posted above! lol)

Julie said...

Lauren: I'd say excessive nodding qualifies as a continuous string of book bloopers. And grinning. And laughing. Your bobble head characters are all just too gosh darned happy!

Barb: digital slapping *snort* Oh dear! You, woman, make me laugh!

Jeremy: YIKES!!! OH final typsets have to be SO scary... THAT's an edit you don't wanna screw up! Can you imagine how embarrassing it would be to read through your published product and find a mistake like "dropping your load"... DOH! *slaps forehead* My fingers are crossed you don't miss anything that obvious ( : Haha! Good luck!

Peggy Eddleman said...

Hahaha! Guess I'm not very mature. I heart my critique group. I can't even think of the specific wording-- just a critique group member's reaction to it. I hadn't even noticed AT ALL before she pointed it out!

Julie said...

Peggy: welcome to the club ( : I suppose its a unavoidable occupational hazard... considering we write YA and all! Haha!

And I'm SO with you. I didn't see this mistake AT ALL before TWO critique members pointed it out! I. Was. Mortified. In a completely hilarious, self deprecating way, of course ( : We have fun!

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