I’ve been through “Figs & Pomegranates & Special Cheeses” again with a fine toothed comb. Now I’ve got to rein myself in. I suspect that no dedicated writer is ever perfectly satisfied with the final product, but editing has to stop somewhere.
I’ve been pleased by responses from people who feel as I do that we dishonor our readers if we provide them with careless grammar, spelling and style.
When the book is finally available (in a week-and-a-half or so) you may enjoy the challenge of looking for errors. Please don’t attack the g/G in god/God though. Those variations are deliberate.
One thing I was surprised to find myself doing twelve times was removing the unnecessary use of the word “that.” Since I recently read a critique of the overuse of “that,” I’ve found myself disturbed by it in other folk’s writing as well as my own.
For example, from “Figs …”
“… so that they would never again be as self-righteous as they had been … “
vs.
“ … so they would never again be as self-righteous as they had been… “
Maybe your ears don’t get affected, but mine are much more comfortable with the second version.
One more example, also from “Figs … “
“We wanted to promise each other that we would always be together in the same way…”
vs,
“We wanted to promise each other we would always be together in the same way…”
Well, anyway. That’s what I’ve been up to.
Thanks for hanging in there.
OH MY GOODNESS! I JUST RE-READ MY FIRST SENTENCE. How about “that.” Or is it OK there?
monagustafsonaffinito 