Lately I’ve been spending a fair bit of time with my e-reader in hand. And I have to say it’s been … educational, and entertaining. And also a little sad, to see all the careless and well-meaning errors which escape today’s authors and editors.

“Two girls entered, both wearing skintight t-shirts which showed off their mid-drifts.”

Uhhhh…..that would be midriffs.

“The cobblestone street was picturesque, but it was hell on his sports car’s shock observers.”

Shock observers? Really? Is that like little people strapped on the corners of the car keeping an eye on those shock absorbers?

“It’ll have to be in the next hour. I have a wedding reversal this afternoon.”

That was a priest speaking — not a divorce attorney. So he had scheduled a wedding rehearsal.

He was moving as quickly as if he’d been shot out of a canon.

Hmm. Maybe that was the same religious person? A cannon is a big gun, a canon is a religious figure.

Joe was having an outer body experience.

Yeah, being shot out of a cannon could cause an out-of-body experience.

She opened the cupboard and pulled out a vile of penicillin.

A vial of antibiotics to treat that vile out-of-body experience, perhaps?

Maybe he was angry and had come to ball her out for not inviting him.

With a cannon ball, no doubt. Otherwise it’s bawl.

One knee peeked out of well warn blue jeans.

By all means, make sure those old, well-worn Levis know they’re in danger!

It was a totally bogus murder wrap.

And the detectives wrapped it up nicely, with the criminal taking the rap.

The point is that every writer needs an editor — because if we don’t already know the right word, then we have no reason to stop writing and look it up to make sure we haven’t chosen the wrong one.

The Snarky Editor comes out of hiding occasionally to comment on the awkward, silly, and sometimes hilarious editing errors found in published books.

#snarkyeditor #everybodyneedsaneditor