Image via Flickr / Sharon Drummond Every author and every editor has at least one pet peeve when it comes to how a collection of words should be set down upon any given page, and those of us contributing to the Blood-Red Pencil are no exception.    Things that Drive an Editor Crazy   Maryann Miller's post regarding her pet peeves ruffled quite a few feathers...  Tuesday, October 7, 2008 Things That Drive An Editor Crazy I’ve been editing for a long time and am still amazed at how often I see common mistakes repeated over and over again. For instance: Fred walked out, taking the file with him. You don’t need ‘with him’. If he took the file, it’s with him, DUH!! [ Read more ]     May I Say a Word in My Defense?   ... and prompted a follow-up post.   Sunday, January 24, 2010 ...

Those of you who follow the blog regularly know that I have a penchant for finding little things in writing that are awkward and pull me out of the story. So often I wish the author and/or editor had taken one last pass through a manuscript and smoothed some of the rough edges. I first wrote about my obsess... er, interest in those little problems back in October 2007 here at The Blood Red Pencil. Wow, we've been doing this a long time. But I digress. The title of that older post is Things That Drive an Editor Crazy , and not everyone has agreed with my critique. That's okay. We don't have to agree on everything, and one of the nice things about this blog is that we are all constantly learning if we keep ourselves open to new ideas and other opinions. Today, just for fun, I thought I would turn the editing over to you, our readers. The following are some bits of writing that made me stop reading because I found them awkward. Why don't you try a rewrite on one or t...