Pay Attention to Detail

One thing I've learned about writing over the years is to pay attention to detail. Sure you know that already. But I can't tell you how many times I thought I was doing that, but somehow a detail or two or three got by me.

I can kick myself, but that doesn't help. And now that I've learned about the POV details, I am confident that from now on, that particular detail won't jump out and bite me anymore.

When it comes to fixing details after the manuscript is written, you have to watch out for screwing up other details. For instance, you may come up with a better dialogue tag than the one you used originally, but when you do patch up work like that, you might screw up another dialogue tag that was exactly the same as the one you inserted after the fact.

And that's a detail. No matter how many times you comb through a manuscript, you've go to pay attention to every single detail, and how it fits with other details regardless if you thought it was something you already fixed.

Yes, this is an important lesson I've learned, and I hope to remember it.