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)