From: kevin_c75@yahoo.com   
      
   On Sunday, August 31, 2014 2:57:19 PM UTC-4, J.Pascal wrote:   
   > Do you think that even big name authors don't make habitual writing   
   mistakes?  This is what editors are for.  Copy editors to fix the small stuff   
   and Editors to catch the huge clinkers and structural errors. Fresh eyes,   
   because the author knows what    
   they wrote and often reads what they know they wrote, even if it didn't get on   
   the page.    
      
   Not of this scope. For example, a fantasy mystery written in the first person.   
   I wanted a strong hook, and started immediately after the incident that   
   initiated the mystery. Nothing wrong there, right? It's traditional in   
   mysteries. Plus there's a lot    
   going on that I thought would bring the reader up to speed with key fantasy   
   aspects of the story. However, it created an unsalable manuscript.   
      
   First, I failed to establish setting or genre in the first sentences. Second,   
   I failed to establish exactly who the protagonist and his men were. Third, I   
   introduced six or seven named characters in two paragraphs. I really doubt the   
   slushpile readers    
   got beyond that first scene. Worse, *I didn't catch this when I edited it.*   
   And I edited it several times, for I couldn't make up my mind to use first or   
   third person, and eventually settled on first.   
      
   Now, this is all beginner's stuff. Yet it went completely over my head. Plus,   
   test readers later said that it opened too slowly, so if the poor slushpile   
   reader got beyond that first scene, they probably set it aside after the   
   second. However, if those    
   readers had not pointed out those problems in the first scene, I would have   
   remained oblivious.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)