Bronte Follower: Blog

I've just found that two chapters of Beth are duplicated in the 30s, such that subsequent chapters are all two off of what they should be. I'm working to fix that, but haven't yet found the problem, and it might be a while. This is probably a problem germane only to those readers that have not reached the late 30s of chapters.

For a long time, now, various widely available word-processing programs have provided what many call "spellchecker" or "Spellcheck." Now, there are programs available, some at no or little cost, that also provide suggestions to improve grammar and syntax. For the past few months, I've been using Grammarly. While I appreciate that it finds stuff like words I'd meant to include but which my fingers didn't get around to typing, it also exposed -- to my mind -- the same problem that Spellcheck provides, but the same problem writ much larger. To wit, they already require the writer to have some familiarization with and skill at words and writing.

Spellcheck cannot find the mistake a writer made when he/she/they wrote "threw" when "through" was intended; the same with "peak," "peek," and "pique." Additionally, Spellcheck cannot know precisely which of the possible solutions is correct with a butchered spelling. As an example, if one types "partiple" into Word, it provides the options of "participle,""particle," and "partible," the first two of which are very different words (I have no idea about the last one!).

While grammar-and-syntax-correction programs can find the above mistakes, at least the free version of Grammarly does not deal well with the shortcuts, some contractions, and other facets typical of dialogue. It also does not deal well with complex sentences that include multiple clauses (both dependent and independent) and commas. I can certainly imagine a capable, but non-learned, writer with good ideas and a good story whose writings could be decimated by not understanding the limitations of these programs.

The solution? Pay attention and apply yourself in English (or whatever language) and grammar classes during primary education. If it's too late for that for a particular writer, many colleges offer remedial English classes these days (almost certainly due to students skating through elementary and high school without learning nearly as much about their language as they should have).

There is nothing of true worth that is not paid for with effort.

I'm in the midst of a sweeping revamping of the various appendices to Beth. All people and places will be in an appendix entitled 'Cast and Places' (which may be the first "chapter"), and the various house and neighborhood layouts (most of which I have yet to put into a format for uploading to SOL) will follow. I've also yet to decide whether to lead with the Prologue or have it follow the house layouts (I'm leaning toward the former). That's a long-winded way of writing that Chapter 156 may be delayed beyond my hoped-for posting of the evening of 7 March. There is a chance I can still make that, but I still have no good estimation of the probability. However, once I've got at least the design and most of the bones constructed of the new appendices system, I hope to return to the every-fourth-day posting schedule. Thanks for your patience.

I got back into the swing of things today, re-posting edited versions of the last three chapters (150-152) and writing Chapter 153. Since it's been so long, even though the chapter is somewhat short, I thought I'd post it tonight. I'm feeling much better and hope that I can get a lot more writing done in the near future.

Getting old sucks. I've spent the last few weeks under the weather with little or no mental energy for writing. I'm now beginning to see some of the Beth upcoming storyline again, so might begin writing soon. I'll keep you apprised.

Thank the stars for the time-waster that is YouTube. I've watched The Traveling Wilburys' 'Wilbury Twist' a pile of times. It always makes me smile, then get sad that we've lost three of the five of them.