They seek them here, they seek them there, they seek those demons everywhere. A slight misquotation but it more or less sums up what I feel about typos. My real feelings are unprintable.
The trouble with the little so-and-sos, note again the restrained language, is the way they hide themselves. However, hard you look; however many times you search through your manuscript, you never, ever find them all. Of course the writer is not necessarily the best person to look. We tend to find ourselves distracted by other faults/blips in the manuscript. I always want to start re-writing certain passages; this could be better, or this tighter, or I wish I hadn’t used that word there and so it goes on. Also, by the time I get to the final edit, I know the story so well that I know I will read in missing words, or completely miss the odd lack of speech marks, or full stop.
The only solution to this problem is to find yourself a good editor; one that has a keen eye and can ferret out those imps of Satan.
For reasons that I will enlarge upon in a later blog, Peter Coleborn has just saved my life on this one. If you want an editor who is rigorous and patient beyond belief, then I can highly recommend Peter and his services.
You can contact him at:Â https://petercoleborn.wordpress.com/
Misha Herwin 