My Writing Week: Issue 22, Year 5


Typos in books. 

I am spotting more and more typos in books lately. In a post a while back I mentioned I had come across five typos in the novel The Dervish House by Ian McDonald, published by Gollancz.
  
In Jonathon Franzen’s novel Freedom, I spotted a typo where I think the editor might have wanted to change “than” to “then”, but instead included both then and than straight after each other in a sentence that did not make any sense.

I have also noticed a couple of typos in a few other books I have read recently, but as they are not from major publishing houses - and therefore didn’t have access to lots of editorial assistance - one or two typos can be excused.

I am no expert on punctuation and spelling. I only tend to notice a typo when a sentence does not make sense. In past years I rarely spotted typos in novels. Perhaps my choice of more complex novels in recent years has me concentrating more when I read, causing me to notice more typos.

But I have also been reading more recently published works lately. Most of them published in the past couple of years. That tends to suggest that the quality of editing is not as good as it was.

Science Fiction on Television.

For science fiction fans in Australia, Go snuck series four of Fringe back into its schedule last Monday at 10.30 pm. Going on previous series, it will probably be close to the best science fiction on television this year, so don’t miss it.

I hope for another series of Torchwood this year. I also hope the writers of Doctor Who forget about having a continual story line, so each episode can devote its entire 45 minutes to a well-developed and suspenseful story. And please kill off the Doctor’s companions.

My Writing.

My novel manuscript has crept up to 89,700 words. Next week I plan to research and write a new article for Divine. This one is very technical and will require a lot of research. It’s about how government departments define a person with a disability.

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