The idea is flowing out of my head and onto the page. The trigger a simple song and a phase that created a complete scene in my head. My fingers are moving at a rapid pace, a check tells me 225 key strokes per minute. Yahoo, I am in the grove. I am in heaven. I finish the piece in no time flat. One thousand two hundred twenty three words. A respectable start. Excited I read through it twice—adjusting and correcting typos and grammar as I go. Wanting to toss the ball to Chris in a pristine state for review and snowballing.
“Here it comes!” Excited, I wait for Chris’s reaction.

“It’s great. But….”

Yep, total fail. I know what’s coming. I have a freaking typo. Sure enough. I have three. I repeat—three. Resting my head on my desk, I bang it a few times as embarrassment sets in. How many times did I read it? How many times did I spell check it? How many times…. I shake my head. At least Chris had a good laugh over it, probably more from the curses flowing over the headset as I searched for the offending typos.

This would be my one flaw as a writer, author, storyteller. No matter how many times I read something I inevitably end up with at least one typo. Chris thinks it is hysterical and cute. I think it is the bane of my existence. I have reverted to old proofing techniques and am fast becoming paranoid. Which again sends Chris over the edge into hysterical guffaws of laughter.

Yeah, yeah. Whatever.

The beauty of a writing partnership is that you offset each other’s weaknesses. And yet, I’ll admit that I do a happy dance when I find a typo in Chris’s work. Granted they are once in a blue moon, however, it is sweet to find one nonetheless.

All joking aside, I do, we do, pride ourselves in pristine work. Our line editing, beta readers, and copy editor have kept me in check. I am learning to slow down which in turn is helping me become better at catching errors. We understand that our work is only as good as reader’s perception and one misspelled word can cloud that perception.

We put a lot of time and effort into the editing of all our stories. To Russia with Love was in the editing/proofing stages for almost two months. Chris and I took three passes through it, our beta and ARC readers another pass followed by two from our lovely editor. We hope you’ll enjoy the fruits of that effort each time you turn a page.

There are many of us out there who chase the elusive typo and want to choke it to death. Don’t let it bring you down. Check your work and recheck it. Use your beta readers to help catch what you’ve missed and then your editor to catch and execute the last elusive monster. In the end, you and your manuscript will be the better for it.

Cheers,

Cecilia