Shnoobers

Never heard the phrase shnoobers? Well, that’s because you didn’t have my dad growing up. In our household, any kind of swearing was the biggest no-no, so of course we had a bunch of substitute words. In fact Napoleon Dynamite utilizes most of them. But sometimes my dad would say shnoobers, you know, kind of like great googly moogly.

Why do I bring up shnoobers in the first place? Well, as you may remember I have a full manuscript in for consideration with an agent. Call me a perfectionist (hey, it’s true, I won’t be insulted) but I’m still scouring the thing for typos, etc., and I’m still finding some. Argh! Shnoobers!

I know, there are some books in print that have typos in them, but you know how it is… You want to present them with your best possible manuscript. I’m just hoping the agent sees the story and the voice past the few errors.

Hence my reaction shnoobers! I know there’s nothing I can do about it now, and I’m guessing I’m not the first aspiring author to send in an imperfect manuscript and I’m sure I won’t be the last. It just makes you wish for some kind of man with a time machine to help you get the better one emailed off instead.

AHEM. Man with time machine, that’s your cue.

*sigh* No blue box. Shnoobers…

In other news, I did get my replacement guitar and it is working fabulously. I’m getting closer to going all Marty McFly with Johnny B. Goode and having fun messing around with the Top Gun theme and Thunderstruck. I’m so close on the speed for Thunderstruck. It’s not technically a hard song, just the speed.

Now our neighbors that can often be heard yelling at each other at least have a soundtrack for their fights. That’s got to be positive, right?

But I’m pretty close to being finished with this most recent edit session on SHADE, then I’ll put it away for a little while and to short stories I go. I may even try a novella. There are many more contests to enter after all!

Have you ever submitted something you realized was a bit more error-ridden than you’d like? Any really big mistakes that made you cringe? How are you coming along with your editing or writing? Are you more of a short stories person or a novel person?

32 thoughts on “Shnoobers”

  1. Ah, those things happen. I find typos in books all the time, whether traditionally published or self-published. As for me, I co-authored a brief (filed last March; still waiting on a decision!) that included two typos in the Questions Presented section. That was a cut and paste kind of job, and so I have no idea why we thought to type it (instead of paste). The good news is that the court probably didn’t read that section (since they’re the ones who came up with the questions), but the bad news is that someone else pointed it out to me later in a mean-spirited way. It was embarrassing.

    • Ugh, why do people have to pick mean-spirited as their mode of communication? I guess because some are hoping no one will notice all the mistake they’re making themselves? By the way, your twins post is still making me smile. Kids are awesome. 🙂

  2. i hear you on the perfectionist deal cuz i’m the same way. hopefully the use of cuz doesn’t bother you, ha. but i’m sure they’ll see and your overall voice and message and look past the errors 🙂

    • Hey, in terms of slang, cuz is okay. Although my Grammar Gil friend would probably say, it should at least be ’cause. LOL. No seriously, all good.

      Thanks for the encouragement. I’m hoping so. I guess on the plus side this current edit has left it cleaner than before.

  3. Shnoobers, I totally forgot about this word, but I will now institute it back into my vocabulary because I love it. 😀

  4. Just recently I applied to a job and I realized after sent in my resume and cover letter that I had a typo in my 2nd sentence of my cover letter. I put a comma instead of a period. I’m hoping that it goes unnoticed. 🙂

  5. I know exactly how you feel. At first I was embarrassed to admit I had a couple of minor errors in my published book. I mean I wasn’t the only set of eyes reading the manuscript. I had an editor (she was fabulous by the way). However, it was too late. It was no one’s fault. Mistakes do happen. I learnt to be extra careful next time around. Oh, and I love the word shnoobers. I have to introduce that word to my husband. 🙂

    • It’s good to hear these things happen a lot more often than we poor writers would like, and not just to me. It’s why I do a lot of editing by reading the book out loud. I’ve caught so many that way… just not enough…

  6. Even after 12 beta readers read my MS, I still found silly grammatical errors. They are so easy to overlook. Unfortunately, it happens to all of us.

      • I edit my MS twice and then have my beta peeps read over. One of my beta’s is a retired English teacher and another has a literary degree and teaches at the college. But neither of them caught all the mistakes either. I find that if I distance myself from my work then it’s easier to spot mistakes. But it has to be a good amount of distance. Like two months or something. It worked for me, though I won’t be surprised if someone else finds more mistakes in it. LOL It’s neverending!

      • I guess that’s why they do “editions” of some books, to fix the typos they missed each time in addition to adding things (textbooks anyway). *sigh* You’re right. Neverending!

  7. Yes, I’ve done that. It’s easy to over look things when you’re the one who wrote it, because you know what it’s suppose to say. I did submit a short story that had more mistakes than I care to admit to, but I look at it as a learning experience. Now I watch more carefully and have someone else look it over before submitting. Good luck to you on your submission!! 🙂

  9. Oh fricken, fracken yes! I am right with ya, sistah! I, too have sent my manuscript off.And dagnabbit, if I haven’t found some horrifying phrases and words that just make me cringe. And though I write about time-travel, unfortunately, my characters don’t want to give me a lick of help.

    • Bwahahaha! Love all your non-expletive phrases. Well, here’s to hoping our potential agents miss the errors because they’re so in love with our manuscripts. *fingers crossed*

  10. I prefer the novel, but I worked as a journalist for a number of years. I learned in that fast-paced deadline-oriented job that something is going to go out with errors. A well-heeled journalist told me, “Get upset for a few seconds, and then move on to the next story.” The St. Augustine Record was celebrating their 100th anniversary a few years back and at a huge do with all the big shots, they unveiled the paper’s anniversary edition. It was a large blow up under a sheet. When the sheet was removed to unveil the front page, the crowd gasped. The headline read, “The St. Augustine Record celebrates 100 years of pubic service.” I heard a copy editor lost his job after that fiasco.

    • Curse you spell checker! Hahahaha! Poor guy. That’s cool that you worked as a journalist. I majored in journalism for a couple of years before switching to film. I liked it, just not the crazy fast-paced part of it all. 😉

  11. Hi! I wanted to let you know that I nominated you for the Very Inspiring Bloggers Award. I enjoy your blog very much. The information you share with us is informative and helpful. Believe it or not, I come to your blog for tips to writing. Thanks for letting me part of your journey. 🙂

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