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Showing posts with label edit. Show all posts
Showing posts with label edit. Show all posts

Sunday, March 17, 2019

PLOT HOLE, by Cat Writer Mollie Hunt





 What is scarier than looking down the maw of a Siberian tiger? The plot hole*, by far.

You’ve worked your tail off writing a book. After weeks or months of fine tuning, you get it right where you like it. You dive in for that final read-through, expecting to find nothing more than a few wayward commas or duplicated words, and there it is, glaring you in the face, laughing.

You have a plot hole, and now you must go back and add, rearrange, and often change your perfect story to accommodate this nuisance.


Maybe some writers can pen a clean story with no hiccups, but I’m not one of them. Since I am a “pantser” and write without an outline, I’m often confronted by a plot hole (or holes) by the end. Some are simple to fix; others, not so much.

Though a pain in the patootie and a blow to our author ego, plot holes are not always a bad thing. In my last book, the plot hole led me to a far superior explanation for the murder motive.

And if nothing else, you can always fill your plot hole with a cat.



*In fiction, a plot hole, plothole or plot error is a gap or inconsistency in a storyline that goes against the flow of logic established by the story's plot. Such inconsistencies include such things as illogical or impossible events, and statements or events that contradict earlier events in the storyline.
Plot hole - Wikipedia

Check out more blogs by Mollie Hunt, Cat Writer at:
Happy reading!


Author note: I still am unable to answer comments. Sometimes I can but most often they just fall into a black hole. I do read all comments and hope someday to figure out the problem and get it fixed. If anyone has any suggestions or wants to contact me directly, email MollieHuntCatWriter@gmail.com.

Wednesday, November 1, 2017

Not a Grammar Nazi


We all know them, those people who live to correct the grammar mistakes of others - preferably on public forums such as Facebook and Twitter. They are known collectively as Grammar Nazis and have the ability to suck the joy out of almost anything by focusing on what was most likely a mistake.

I came across an awesome tweet one day which included a pop culture reference which just pushed the awesomeness to another level. The tweet (which of course I can't find again) had countless likes, retweets, and comments. I was shocked to find that most of the comments focused on the one grammatical error in the tweet instead of the amazing overall content. (If I remember correctly it was "whose" instead of "who's".) I just wanted to shake people and scream "You're missing the point!" It's no harder to use your 140 characters to give the originator of the tweet kudos for creativity than it is to point out a mistake that they are (now) well aware of. However, Twitter doesn't allow for editing of tweets so the originator's only option is to delete it or just deal with the negativity.

We have an "instant messaging" feature at work that we can use to contact other employees. One of my coworkers knows that I'm an author (most don't) and she told me one day that she is always nervous about messaging me because she's worried about making some sort of mistake. I (hopefully) assured her that I'm not one to nit pick which may seem to be an odd trait for a writer.

So, am I saying that good grammar isn't important? Not at all. When I send a book off to an editor, I'm going to make sure that it is as perfect as I can make it. I also know when I get that book back, the editor will have found simple grammatical mistakes that I overlooked. It's easy to miss our own mistakes, especially when we have been working on the same manuscript for any length of time. After a while, the brain sees what it expects to see instead of what is actually there. This is why editors are so important.

So, if my passion involves the use of words and grammar why am I not a grammar nazi? Simple:

1. Everybody makes mistakes - even those so fond of policing others.

2. Autocorrect is the great equalizer. Anyone who uses a smartphone or tablet is well acquainted with typing a message and hitting send only to realize that autocorrect reared its ugly head and made changes - sometimes rather embarrassing ones.

I fell victim to autocorrect this morning. I typed up a tweet, proofread it, sent it, and moved on with life. A couple of hours later I realized that in spite of proofreading there was a typo in the tweet. *sigh* How did I miss the error? It was an example of what I mentioned earlier - I saw what I expected to see instead of what was actually there.

There, their, they're. It's just a mistake, not the end of the world.

On another note, while I am not one to be offended by any and every thing, I actually am not fond of the use of the term "nazi" in this context. I feel that it somewhat demeans the atrocities that occurred during the Holocaust but that's a topic for another post.

So, are you a grammar nazi? Be honest. I won't tell. ;-)



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