Now with ultraviolent zombie mayhem

[adelagia]

Was recently just telling someone that I can't bring myself to overlook incorrect dialogue punctuation or blatant misspellings, no matter how popular or well-recced a fic is, though I vaguely recall a time when stuff like that didn't bother me as much (misuse of your/you're, however, has always, always felt like a sucker-punch to the soul); I think

Comments

[blankmeridian]

(I cringed so hard when I read "coy pond") My basic feeling is that the book could have been a lot more awesome if just a bit more effort had been involved; it was such an awsome premise.

[adelagia]

Yep, you're right, that's it exactly. Great premise and meh execution.

[embe11ished]

Do you think the "coy pond" could have been a reference to what I understand is the next book in the series, "Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters"? Okay, maybe not. I haven't read either book, but I have to admit to being somewhat intrigued. Though if there really are that many SPAG errors, maybe I'm not that interested, after all!

[adelagia]

HA, home to a coquettish giant kraken, no doubt.

Well, the saving grace is that about 90% of it is original Austen, so you know you're getting that much quality, at least! And I think the "coy pond" was really the worst of it (and also the insistence of referring to sweat as "exercise moisture"); the other stuff was mostly minor enough that it didn't ping my "WHERE IS YOUR BETA?" reflex too often :)

[7veilsphaedra]

Oh yes, I would much rather have a coy pond than a blatant and forward pond, one which sloshed its scum about indiscriminately.

As for those bails of hay, I've always known those scoundrels would head straight for the border the minute they were unstrung.

[adelagia]

*snerk*

Of course, with the forward ponds at least you know where you stand. Those coy ones are always giving off mixed signals.

[accordingtomel]

My biggest problem with the book, though, was the shoddy proofreading work

I'm not a fan of errors in fanfic either, but usually if it's the odd one here or there I don't really care. Afterall, these are not professional by any stretch of the imagination.

But DUDE....when it comes to published books, I can't handle it at ALL. And I most definitely will and HAVE stopped reading a book if I notice a lot of spelling/grammatical errors in it. It completely and absolutely turns me off. I'm 100% positive that I refused to keep reading a book some time in the last couple of years for that exact reason, though I can't for the life of me remember which book it is

[adelagia]

For fanfic, a few mistakes here and there are fine, but I'm big on getting things beta-ed; I think if you've put all this work into something, you'd want the best possible version of it for people to see, you know? I don't understand people who say things like, "This idea came to me last night, I wrote it in 20 minutes and didn't have time to find a beta, so sorry if it sucks."

Like blankmeridian said above, the premise for P&P&Z sounded really cool, but the execution could've been a lot better. But yes, do read P&P! Heh, I love to read, too, but I think other than what I've had to read for school, a lot of the classics have passed me by.

HEE, I am so up for doing a marathon of any of those shows with you! And then you can teach me how to play D&D. Yay! :D

[ems]

I rarely get a beta because a) I never imagine anyone could be bothered to do it and b) my fanfiction really doesn't seem important enough for a beta. I probably would for a long piece, though.

Mind you, I am a trained proof-reader so I would hope to spot most errors myself...!

[adelagia]

Tbh, for drabbles and little things I tend not to bother with betas either, but for me it's an absolute must when it comes to long, srs bsns fic. I think in general I'm pretty good with SpaG, but there's always the chance that I wouldn't catch my own mistakes simply b/c I'm too familiar with my own work.

Also, I'd be happy to beta for you if you ever need it :)

[idreamofdraco]

I bought it during the summer but never finished reading it, because I had just finished rereading P&P right before buying it. The parts that I did read were pretty funny though. :)

Bad SpaG is a nightmare, ESPECIALLY IN A BOOK!

[adelagia]

Bad SpaG is a nightmare, ESPECIALLY IN A BOOK!

IKR? Fanfic is one thing, but with books people are PAID to pay attention to these things.