It seems like we are absolutely inundated these days with articles and posts containing all types of “critically important" do’s and don’ts that supposedly make or break the careers of new authors. Here’s the reality check: some things matter one time and one time only, and that’s when the editor reads the manuscript. I’m not trying to say anything negative about editors; they are doing their job and they are invaluable. Nevertheless, there are certain things that don’t matter to anyone except editors, we just convince ourselves they do.
Image by Gerd Altmann
Some great examples are “smiling words,” split infinitives, and opening a chapter with weather. I don’t know any reader, including the one writing this post, who cares about those things–or even notices them at all.
Proper punctuation, grammar, spelling etc., are certainly important because if those rudimentary things are flawed, it makes the writer look amateurish and unprofessional. Plot holes, historical errors, inconsistencies, poor pacing, and a wealth of other things are crazy-important as well, but are often overlooked by the very writers who spend 15 minutes debating a comma.
The moral of the story is, never drive yourself crazy with picky nonsense because you’re convinced that editors, or worse yet “expert reviewers,” will find fault with your work.
All novels need proofreading and editing, but at the end of the day, you’re not selling your book to the editor, you’re not selling it to the proofreader, you’re not selling it to the “expert reviewer,” you are selling it to the READER. And readers don’t give two hoots about the Oxford comma. Readers care whether or not the darn story is any good. Put your effort into spinning a great tale and when it comes to deciding if you should use a period or a colon, flip a coin, pour another glass of iced tea, and keep writing!