Writer Zen Garden

Wow!  I just finished reading an e-book and have never been so overwhelmed by typographical errors in my life.  Never have I seen so many mistakes, to the point that they took me out of the story.  Who edited this?  The Three Stooges?

Interestingly, the title was a re-release from something published in 2008.  Not knowing if this could possibly have anything to do with the problem (which seems unlikely), I can’t help commenting that it felt at times like the writer’s first language is something other than English.  There were wrong tenses, misused words, missing words, extra words – you name it.

The story itself was very enjoyable, by an author whose writing I greatly enjoy and admire.  And yet, sadly, I am likely never to read the tale again for all the annoyances.  Too bad I can’t go into my Kindle Fire and fix the issues.  Wouldn’t that be nice?

As for the names of story and author, I’ll keep those to myself.  Additionally, I’ll cross my fingers to never find something so botched again.  Now I’m going to read this several times before posting and try to make sure I don’t make any of the same mistakes!

As both an avid reader and fledgling writer, I often consider the naming of chapters.  By no means do I consider the practice necessary, nor do I see many authors doing so these days.

There are, however, times when I haven’t been able to help myself.  For example, I once wrote a short story with food items as chapter titles.  Within each chapter I worked that word into the storytelling.  They ultimately tied together as ingredients in a recipe.

The reason I chose to expound on the issue here, however, is because of an e-book I recently downloaded.  This particular author, who composed a decent tale, took an odd stance on titling.  She actually used the location, month, and year in which the ensuing interval occurs.

Because the storyline sometimes visited the distant past, that might not have seemed a bad choice.  However, I found that her habit merely pulled me out of the story without purpose.  After all, the flashbacks were just that – flashes – and always appeared in italics.  I can’t think of one instance where the title came from the past, either, while the timeline progressed naturally from the end of the previous chapter.

I’ll definitely consider this experience for my future writings.  What is your opinion?  Do you like chapter titles?  Do you use them?  Or perhaps I’m odd for even considering the point.  Please let me know what you think!