I'm Not Trusting Machines Anymore

 

I grew up in one of the generations where computers weren't there and then they were there. I've been an advocate of the whole project since I was first exposed to it all. I realize now that my faith in machines was over the top. I trusted that spell checks et al would catch every error especially since I had yet another program backing that up before I published, I felt confident everything was A+.

Yes, I did the manual visual critical edit but that was close in time to writing it and I know that I'm too close to it to be able to see the errors. My brain passes right over them like there's no flies on the canvas even if there are. 

Recently on a novel that got a lot of love across a ton of platforms online over the years also got a lot of "fix it" love to go with those glowing bravos. I wondered how could that be? I would peruse the novel, run a spell check again that said A+ and I couldn't understand it. 

Finally and recently I decided to sit down and edit that novel. Why? Because on a feature script that right now might actually have a shot at being made a read through revealed weird capital S's in odd places. I trusted that program too but I decided to sit down with that novel now because I realized I really can't trust machines the way I have been.

I've spent a week so far and I'm almost done but is it going to be perfect? I'm hoping so because after not reading that novel for years I think I got there, where it needs to be so the reader doesn't stub their toes on stones on the road of what they say is a great story. I want the full Bravo, I love that story too. 

So I'm not trusting machines anymore. I hope to be able to finish a novel, script and send it off to editors that happily wait to fix it. That's one of my future goals. For now, I have to rely on myself and machines but I am not trusting them as much anymore. 

I write on excited to put out the Second Edition of The Earthlings, soon. Thanks to everyone who told me about what their reader eyes saw and loved the story enough to save it. I think that's wonderful!