Writers reveal the unintended comedy of editing names with ‘find and replace’
When Adam became Scott in one manuscript, another character ‘Scottantly opposed a merger’ in the plot.
Published
When authors get feedback on their work in progress they might well choose to edit the name of a character.
It’s an easy job using the find and replace function in most word processing programmes.
But it can have some unintended comic value if they don’t select the right options and end up replacing more than just a character’s name, as these writers have shared.
And it’s not just name changes which can trip people up. Sometimes words are changed to match markets with different dialects for instance between American English and British English.
And alongside Dea Poirier’s initial pro tip other writers had ways to avoid the trap.
