Actually, since I met my husband, nothing keeps me awake at night. We are so content in our lives that we’ve become champion sleepers. However, if something in my writing did keep me awake at night, this is what it would be.

The little mistakes that writers make when they write about something they think they know about because it’s common knowledge. I’m not really worried about the big stuff because between my editor, agent, and critique group, we’re bound to catch those errors. Also, if I don’t know about something, I research it and then I make sure and have someone who knows read it too.

Here’s an example of what I’m talking about. Last night I was reading a YA by a very well-known, well-loved writer. In one scene, two characters are talking while one makes a loaf of bread. Now, while I don’t consider myself an expert bread maker, by any means, I do make about 99.9% of the bread we eat. Seriously. I buy about 3 loaves a year, the rest I make myself (yes, I made the rolls in the pic above).

And let me tell you, if the woman in that scene made bread the way it was written, she would not have bread. She would have a hard flat loaf resembling a brick.

The thing is, I’m sure it never occurred to the writer to check on how to make bread because “everyone knows”, right? I mean, there’s some kneading and some bread pans and you bake it…and you have bread…close enough for a tiny scene, right? And that’s what I worry about. Writing about something I think I know about, but don’t actually know anything about!

Sewing is a great example. In my book that I’m working on now, my character knows how to sew and at one point she works on a dress. I had to take costuming to get a theatre degree, so I’ve had some sewing. And my mother is an excellent seamstress, as well as both my grandmothers, so I’ve grown up around sewing. And in my book, I had my character basting the whole dress together until she can get to a sewing machine. When my mother read that, she said, “Umm…you wouldn’t really do that. You might baste the long seams together, but not the whole dress.”

The conclusion I’ve come to is this. It is the author’s responsibility to get everything as right as possible. And it’s a good idea to have a variety of people read the manuscript before it goes to copy edits to help with this. But in the end, does it really, really matter if the bread turns out to be a brick? They never eat it, so maybe the character has no idea how to make bread.

I have to give my ego a rest and know that perfection is unattainable. And also a bit boring.