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When I wrote the original books in this universe, I had reasons for everything, but…in hindsight…not all those reasons were good ones. You remember I told you about the naming conventions…using root-names for characters and then suffixes which suggested (were supposed to suggest) different origins for them, like Seli, Selis, Selits, and Tam, Tamis…?? And you probably remember that, in hindsight, this was sheer h-e-double-hockey-sticks for the copy-editor and probably did not enrich the reading experience nearly as much as I’d hoped.
I also named political units in Aarenis, and their cities, with both history and related populations in mind. Hence Vonja, with Cortes Vonja and Pler Vonja, and Foss Council, with its three cities of Foss, Fossnir, and Ifoss. (The lack of a Cortes Foss means that the original Old Aarean inhabitants of Aarenis did not establish a fortified base in that area.) However…early in this set of books, and particularly when drafting Book IV, I waffled about whether to have Arcolin pick Fossnir or Ifoss as his base of operations. Fossnir was too close to Valdaire–not central at all. Ifoss, though away from the main river valley, had a good angle to both Foss and Fossnir, and a “back door” approach to Andressat. So I chose that.
However, in drafting various chapters at various times, I failed to remind myself which of the minor Foss Council cities was where, and used “Fossnir” instead of “Ifoss”…and nobody caught it, not even early readers. My editor, the copy editor, and I all missed it until I was caught by one particular passage in which Fossnir was mentioned. It is not the only place the error exists. As the person who wins an ARC will quickly notice.
This error woke me up this morning…I knew I hadn’t marked it as it slid past my eyes, so it was some pages back in the stack that was “done.” I did a routine search on “Fossnir” to find it…and instead found all the other wrong instances. Whose page numbers do not correspond with the copy edits, let alone with the page proof pagination. It’s my fault entirely: my new editor could not be expected to know Fossnir was wrong, nor the CE. There are only two legitimate mentions of Fossnir, as the Company passed through it from Valdaire to Ifoss.
HEADDESK time. Then quickly head back up and a separate card for noting page numbers (the computer file is closer to the CE pages, and from there I can find the places on the page proofs. But major, major DUH on my part.
Why tell you about my blunder? Because if you ever write a book, this is the kind of thing that may happen to you, especially in a long, complicated project. Fact check at least one more time than you think you need to. Errors in proofs that have been there since the Dawn of Book are…embarrassing. (And also, whoever gets the ARC would go “WHAT? But….!)
Comment by Keenan — December 8, 2012 @ 3:41 pm
Also, not misplacing your original notes might help…
Comment by Sam Barnett-Cormack — December 8, 2012 @ 5:20 pm
I know it was only a by-the-by point, but the patterns of similar names really does add verisimilitude for me. I don’t know about any systematic pattern, but just the fact that there are duplicated names and similar names (some that get shortened to the same thing as one another) made it feel much more like a window on a real world.
Comment by Jenn — December 8, 2012 @ 6:49 pm
Elizabeth,
Don’t be to hard on yourself. I can’t even write a one page knitting pattern and send it off without giant mistakes. Just screw up one number and you’re toast. I am happy you caught it now instead of in the June 2013 spoiler space.
May your eyeballs and inner eye continue to catch the oopses 🙂
Comment by Annabel — December 9, 2012 @ 3:40 am
Oh poor you – what a seriously annoying thing to happen, especially when it was obviously worrying your subconscious to wake you up in the night like that! Still, at least you caught it, that’s the main thing.
And I agree – I really like that you re-use names for your characters. Some authors don’t, for reasons of clarity, but that can make it difficult to suspend disbelief. After all, we all have loads of friends who share a name. My own name was fairly unique in my generation, although it is more common among the young, but my daughter and her husband have about the most common names for men and women in their generation that you can get!
Comment by ellen — December 9, 2012 @ 9:48 am
I think you’re amazing! I read an awful lot, and I’ve rarely come across a author as consistent and meticulous as you,, I get quite annoyed at times at how some authors change names and places from one book to the next, so I think you go above and beyond the call of duty. Thanks for the many hours of sheer reading pleasure you’ve given us; and I hope you can have a bit of a break after you finish your page proofs, you deserve it. Bless you heaps! 🙂
Comment by ellen — December 9, 2012 @ 9:52 am
think I’ll try to get some sleep now; it’s nearly 3 am here. Insomnia sucks!:-(
Comment by Rolv — December 10, 2012 @ 5:22 am
In other words, you are human. 🙂
I guess every author experiences the same. Robert Jordan (Wheel of Time) mixes “saidar” and “saidin” once or twice (Book 5 or 6). Agatha Christie once lets Poirot solve the the crime by using X to find out X.
I once read a doctoral dissertation where the name of one person was written in two different ways on the same page. Two sources had used different ways of transscribing a Chinese name. And the author was evidently not aware of the two being the same! (I never told him, though, and I doubt anybody else noticed.)
Comment by Ginny W. — December 10, 2012 @ 7:20 am
It seems the mental map got skewed a bit. Deep breath. We should print out the map(s) poster size and color them for you as a “Thank you for doing this series” present. And post it near your computer.
I think the similar names lend verisimilitude. Ironically, some of the verisimilitude comes from the confusion it causes. I also see that it puts a lot on the writer, since if a minor character (or place) with a common name reappears, the spelling has to be consistent with the earlier appearance.
Sigh. Wistfully thinking about reading an ARC.
Comment by Elizabeth D. — December 11, 2012 @ 1:09 pm
I cringe at the mistakes I catch in my own edits, but I smile at others. Thanks for clearing up the Fossnir/ Ifoss confusion, because I like to follow where people are on maps. As to my own errors: I developed insomnia and headaches over them, and that isn’t worth it. I decided that readers will have to overlook the errors, which are mostly not spelling or punctuation after reading and re-reading, but format errors, which somehow still were in the manuscript after going over every line word by word. Doing the proofing made me less critical of others. I’m still bothered when I read others’ misused “to too two” or “there their they’re” or “your you’re” or “its it’s,” but most errors are just innocent mistakes, and I’ve made plenty of my own errors.
Comment by Richard — December 11, 2012 @ 3:17 pm
Elizabeth,
one good thing: when you blogged last February about re-using inn names from Sheepfarmer’s Daughter, you wrote that they were in Ifoss which is the right city so you won’t have to change them too.
If you’d called the three Foss cities Foss, Nir and Itown (say) then we’d have lost information and maybe you’d still have made the mistake. I like the common name roots for the Foss and Vonja cities (likewise Fallo and Falsith), I like it that they are all different too (no Pler Foss for example) and that you haven’t been too systematic by following the same pattern all over the map. (This also makes the special significance of the Cortes title stand out.)
For realism, you could even allow yourself to repeat some place names for small vills. Two Springfields say (to pick an example from our world), well apart, especially if one has (or both have) a Barton not a Grange.
Comment by Sharidann — December 12, 2012 @ 6:31 am
Elizabeth, let’s face it! You are human! 🙂
I know, poor consolation as it sounds like a roman work to fix it. 🙁
Comment by Daniel Glover — December 12, 2012 @ 7:29 am
Hooray for the page proofs being done!
I’m glad you write about it and the problems that arise. Had a conversation earlier in the month with a musician friend about all the effort she puts in to original compositions–she’s particularly good at children’s libretto–and how if she kept track she’s probably getting paid pennies per hour for the creative process. We need to hear that what you do is work and, like all of us, occasionally mistakes happen and have to be worked through as best possible.
Comment by Jenn — December 12, 2012 @ 11:28 am
Richard,
That would be great. You could have the courier mess up and send the message of an invading army to the wrong Springfield barton.
Comment by Richard — December 13, 2012 @ 8:14 pm
Elizabeth,
The natural way names kept being reused, some much more frequently than others, did enrich my reading experience. So did the hotchpotch (is that a technical term?) of names and variations – but because I did not spot the underlying system you describe, rather I completely misinterpreted where the names were coming from.
It started with Stammel asking Paksenarrion for a short form of her name. I then saw “Seliast” as the root name, “Seli” as its familiar diminutive (with “Selis” when one eventually appeared as a further variation: like our Thomas/Tom/Tommy). “Seliam” as an independent name built from a “-liam” root, like Aliam, Haliam and Caliam – shades there of Thorin’s twelve companions.
Comment by Jenn — December 26, 2012 @ 4:50 pm
Just re-reading this entry. Would you consider this a bigger oops than having Cracolnya bi-locate in the middle of OoG? That is an oops that (since we have saints in my Church with that gift) always makes me grin. Perhaps this ability can assist him in Book V ? 🙂