I love outtakes and bloopers. When the mess-in-progress is not cooperating, I need a good laugh. It also helps to remind me that other creative people make mistakes, too.

Surfing around on Youtube, I found some good bloopers from the 1995 Pride & Prejudice and the 2006 Jane Eyre.  Note that horses play a major role in each set.

As to bloopers in romance novels, some that I remember are also horse-related. The mare that turned into a gelding in the course of a ride. The phaeton, a type of 4-wheeled carriage, that turned into a curricle, which has two wheels. (Admitted, a lot of readers wouldn’t know that.) The funniest blooper I can recall is where the hero referred to his “bullocks” instead of “bollocks”.

This is what copy editors are for, but they do miss stuff sometimes.

Ditto for cover artists. You may already have heard of the legendary cover for Christina Dodd’s 1993 release, Castles in the Air.  The rest of the story is here on her website.

As for bloopers I’ve made, I hope most were caught by me or my critique partners, like the scene where a gun mysteriously jumped from one character’s hands to another’s. I’d accidentally deleted the sentence with the handover. Another sort-of blooper is a sex scene in which I had the hero remove most of the heroine’s clothing, except I forgot about her boots. Once I realized, I let it be. Maybe that’s how they wanted it.

What are some of your favorite bloopers, whether on film or in books?

Elena
www.elenagreene.com