It's always good to have an extra set of eyes look over your work.
At my Writers’ Guild meeting this week, I brought in my one-page query to an agent about my novel. It included a brief synopsis of the plot, and my biography, which includes writing credentials and work experience. It was pretty much what I always use when asked for my bio, and it is what I used on this blog. Dozens of people, including professional writers, teachers, and my father, the retired Journalism professor, have read those words. So, Tuesday evening, I read the synopsis, and then went quickly through the bio figuring nothing much would strike anyone there. All of us gasped when I reached the bit about McCall’s Magazine folding after 125 years and I read “I don’t think there was a correlation its publishing my article on energy CONVERSATION and the magazine’s demise." After the gasp, we all (myself included) burst into laughter. Yes, my article could have been described as an energy conversation, but I meant CONSERVATION.
Yikes.
I know the importance of catching those pesky little typos, especially the ones that are correctly spelled words—just they are not the words you wanted. I tell my Written Communication students at the college to have someone else read everything they write. I have lots of good examples to prove my point, including a large, statewide mailing that was about to go out with the intended heading Public Information in 18 point font, only the writer (not me) had left out the “L” in Public. Now, I’ve got another example to include: my bio.
I changed it in the one-page submission to the agent, but I haven’t decided yet if I want to change it in my blog bio or some of the other places. I like the play on words between “conversation” and “conservation.” Word plays should be deliberate, and thus are not typos. I can’t claim that it was a word play from the start, but heck—it’s funny. At the end of that meeting, I was giving the new members the address of this blog, and one of them asked with a grin if I meant “writing is conservation.” Hmmmm, yes, that could be true. More word play!
Yikes.
I know the importance of catching those pesky little typos, especially the ones that are correctly spelled words—just they are not the words you wanted. I tell my Written Communication students at the college to have someone else read everything they write. I have lots of good examples to prove my point, including a large, statewide mailing that was about to go out with the intended heading Public Information in 18 point font, only the writer (not me) had left out the “L” in Public. Now, I’ve got another example to include: my bio.
I changed it in the one-page submission to the agent, but I haven’t decided yet if I want to change it in my blog bio or some of the other places. I like the play on words between “conversation” and “conservation.” Word plays should be deliberate, and thus are not typos. I can’t claim that it was a word play from the start, but heck—it’s funny. At the end of that meeting, I was giving the new members the address of this blog, and one of them asked with a grin if I meant “writing is conservation.” Hmmmm, yes, that could be true. More word play!
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