Details Details and Having Review Readers
Having review readers is a great thing, especially when they are smarter than me. I got one story back from two readers this week with a variety of comments, and two gems.
One gem was that I'd said that the character got his eye color from his father, only to learn from my reader that the particular eye color requires both parent's genes to be passed along to the child. I'll pick another more genetically fitting color or cut it entirely.
The second gem had to do with the name of a character engaged in political protest. I randomly picked the name from whatever my subconscious tossed me. I ended up with a last name of Chomski, My reader asked if I was intentionally implying Noam Chomsky. I said no. I was then informed that Noam Chomsky was a libertarian socialist (according to my check in Wikipedia). My character may be politically motivated, but that's the wrong stripe, and some other readers may have read something into the name and gotten confused too.
In either case, I should have checked such things, but either way, great stuff to know, and far less embarrasing to learn now than later.
One gem was that I'd said that the character got his eye color from his father, only to learn from my reader that the particular eye color requires both parent's genes to be passed along to the child. I'll pick another more genetically fitting color or cut it entirely.
The second gem had to do with the name of a character engaged in political protest. I randomly picked the name from whatever my subconscious tossed me. I ended up with a last name of Chomski, My reader asked if I was intentionally implying Noam Chomsky. I said no. I was then informed that Noam Chomsky was a libertarian socialist (according to my check in Wikipedia). My character may be politically motivated, but that's the wrong stripe, and some other readers may have read something into the name and gotten confused too.
In either case, I should have checked such things, but either way, great stuff to know, and far less embarrasing to learn now than later.