Errors in novels

[Justin_Swanton]

The Internet (especially Google Earth) has made this really easy. I was able to create a hiding place for one of my characters in the woods surrounding a field that really exists, near a town that really exists. Also, some of the action takes place in the White House – the photo tour sites were fantastic. And one scene was set next to the Great Mosque in Mecca – love Google Earth!

Oh yeah. I chose a fairly obscure period for my own novel (late fifth century) and used Google Earth to choose the likeliest place for the novel’s battlefield. Google Earth’s 3D landscape moulding feature, plus the photos of the area, enabled me to describe it perfectly.

The good thing about obscure periods is that one is free to create a plausible world based on the few known facts without offending anyone’s sense of verisimilitude. One just has to avoid obvious anachronisms, like having Roman legionaries use rectangular shields in the Republic or late Empire (every single Roman movie: Agora, Attila, etc.), or using a Testudo formation to break a line of Briton warriors (Centurion - that movie also shows the Britons with blades on their chariot wheels, a practice confined to the Persian and Seleucid east).

There really is no excuse for sloppy research. With the internet doubling public knowledge every five years or so, one can quite easily find out what one needs to know. I’m currently writing a Catholic-orientated science fiction novel of which all the research was easily done from my PC.

 

[Phemie]

I remember one of Clive Cussler’s books in which he mentioned flying from Shearwater to the Queen Charlotte Islands on the west coat of Canada in a very short time. I lived in Shearwater, a military base in Nova Scotia on the opposite end of the country, and was appalled by such a glaring error.

I was going to write to him about his ‘mistake’ but never got around to it, much to my joy when I discovered that there was also a Shearwater on the west coast. I’d never heard of it. Now if I think I’ve found a mistake, I do some research.

 

[maryjk]

i also do not like to find spelling errors in novels. i wonder what editors are paid these days or does something happen during the printing process?
i haven’t found any other errors in novels. maybe i am not paying that much attention to detail.

i do find errors in movies though and that does annoy me.

There and their, they’re not the same.

Fewer and less. Sorry you can not have less people.

 

[DaveBj]

There and their, they’re not the same.

Fewer and less. Sorry you can not have less people.

Spelling – it’s the difference between knowing your [stuff] and not knowing you’re [stuff].

(wording changed to avoid the censor-bot)

 

[DaveBj]

snip

There really is no excuse for sloppy research. With the internet doubling public knowledge every five years or so, one can quite easily find out what one needs to know. I’m currently writing a Catholic-orientated science fiction novel of which all the research was easily done from my PC.

If anyone wants to see how a pro handles research, read early Tom Clancy; one prime example is the chapter in Debt of Honor where the U.S. financial market are attacked and crash. Granted, after he got rich and famous, he probably had flunkies doing the research for him, but the point is that whoever was doing it, detailed research was being done.

 

[empther]

Originally Posted by Justin Swanton;
snip

There really is no excuse for sloppy research. With the internet doubling public knowledge every five years or so, one can quite easily find out what one needs to know. I’m currently writing a Catholic-orientated science fiction novel of which all the research was easily done from my PC.

Errrrrrrr…

… if you put your novel on the internet free for anybody to look at,

no publishing house will touch it ! :bigyikes:

It’s like breaking the horse’s legs at the starting gate. :crying:

 

[Joe_5859]

Errrrrrrr…

… if you put your novel on the internet free for anybody to look at,

no publishing house will touch it ! :bigyikes:

It’s like breaking the horse’s legs at the starting gate. :crying:

Tell that to E.L. James. She’s riding that broken-legged horse all the way to the bank.

 

[Justin_Swanton]

Errrrrrrr…

… if you put your novel on the internet free for anybody to look at,

no publishing house will touch it ! :bigyikes:

It’s like breaking the horse’s legs at the starting gate. :crying:

I’m just parking it there as a precaution since my PC is dicey, my DVD drive isn’t working, and I don’t have a flash. It’s impossible to find the site unless you’re told it’s there, so I think I’m covered when Christopher Little offers it to Bloomsbury.

 

[dshix]

I’m just parking it there as a precaution since my PC is dicey, my DVD drive isn’t working, and I don’t have a flash. It’s impossible to find the site unless you’re told it’s there, so I think I’m covered when Christopher Little offers it to Bloomsbury.

That’s still rather insecure, so if I were you I’d “park” it in google docs. You can’t lose it an it’s private.

 

[InJesusItrust]

Sometimes something unreal has a deeper meaning. For example a sixty year old beating up young men in a brawl fight is unreal, but at the same time it tells us something about him.

 

[Phemie]

That may have been deliberate, as the expected mostly US viewership would not be expected to recognize the Canadian uniforms.

ICXC NIKA

No, I guess for recognition they would have had to put the RCMP in their Red Serge, high browns and Stetsons - even if that’s their formal uniform, not their work one.

 

[Lion_of_Narnia]

Sometimes something unreal has a deeper meaning. For example a sixty year old beating up young men in a brawl fight is unreal, but at the same time it tells us something about him.

A prior post brought up the fact that the “unrealness” of 70-some year old Spenser (Robert B. Parker’s character) could still beat up thugs–ok, from real life, Jack Dempsey in the early eighties when he was in his eighties sent two would be muggers to the hospital and Jake Lamotta could STIll beat up 99% of us all in a brawl

 

[Arizona_Mike]

A prior post brought up the fact that the “unrealness” of 70-some year old Spenser (Robert B. Parker’s character) could still beat up thugs–ok, from real life, Jack Dempsey in the early eighties when he was in his eighties sent two would be muggers to the hospital and Jake Lamotta could STIll beat up 99% of us all in a brawl

True. There are some tough old birds out there.

 

[Justin_Swanton]

That’s still rather insecure, so if I were you I’d “park” it in google docs. You can’t lose it an it’s private.

Ta for the suggestion. Have done just that.

 

[dshix]

Ta for the suggestion. Have done just that.

Cool! Glad I could help.