I saw that quite a few Twilight reviews mentioned the poor editing, so I spent 20 minutes double-checking whether the alleged editing mistakes were disputable and/or justifiable by artistic license. So far, I’m up to eight errors that I consider indisputable and another that might be merely awkward. I can’t remember reading any other professionally published novels with more than one typo.
Incorrect Word Choices and Tenses
1. Eclipse mixes up “whose” and “who’s.”
2. Twilight mixes up “moats” and “motes.”
3. New Moon mixes up “reign in” and “rein in.” Hat-tip to Wings for mentioning this to me.
4. Twilight lapses from the past tense into the present for no readily discernible reason.
Missing Words and Letters (AKA: Stephenie Meyer’s Spellchecker is a Treacherous Snake)
5. “The” is used in place of “they.” If you’re getting paid to edit, I’d recommend reading all of the sentences aloud. It helps.
6. “Though” is used in place of “through.”
7-8. Eclipse uses the phrase “I needed come to grips.” If you can see what’s wrong with that expression, you’re a step ahead of at least one person getting paid to proofread.
Unlike the previous phrase, which is indisputably wrong, I have a squishier objection to “Though I’d given back the hand-me-down ring as soon as I could do it without hurting his feelings, my left hand felt heavier, like it was still in place, just invisible.” Pronouns usually closely follow their antecedents, so I feel it’s awkward to use “it” to refer to her ring rather than her hand. I think it would be smoother to rephrase “it” as “the ring.”
9. You’d pretty much have to be a professional to notice this last one. New Moon mentions a character from Romeo and Juliet twice but the spelling changes. If you caught that, good job! You’re even more anal than I am.
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If you enjoyed this article, please see how I would have edited the first two pages of Twilight.
