This final Editorial Mistake concerns errors that happen on a line-by-line and sentence-by-sentence basis.
This is line editing, which typically has a localized impact, if any, on the reader's experience. However, when copyediting errors are abundant in a manuscript, it can keep the reader from investing interest in the story at hand.
Read MoreHave you ever read through your novel, noticed a continuity error, and then realized that—oh no!—when you took a few months away from the project, you picked back up with the continuity error, which then avalanched into a major (and factually inaccurate) plot point, and now you have to overhaul what you thought was a completed novel?
Ahh!
Let’s make sure that doesn’t happen again.
Read MoreArtificial Intelligence is doing some pretty impressive things right now, but there are very few programs that currently meet the expectations we have for a human editor.
Though many writers have sophisticated word processors, they may still make egregious spelling errors and grammatical mistakes, while overseen by the software. Moreover, these programs can’t yet catch continuity or fact-check errors on their own.
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