It happens. I can write and rewrite, go through a dozen editing passes, and somehow or another….a spelling error still makes it through into the book!
Now, no one is immune. Even my favorite authors, guys with big names in the business, have had a misspelled word slip through. You wouldn’t believe the number of word oopsies that have already occurred typing this post, but I keep going back and fixing them. As authors we try our very best to hunt down these little grammar deviants and set the eraser upon them with full smiting vengeance! After all, you spend a few dozen pages fulfilling the illusion of another world, and then something as little as their-there-they’re trips up the reader and sends them falling back into reality.
But, I am less worried now. My mistakes are not because I am the sole person in the world who goofs up. Nay, I am just one of many who are human and fallible.
Actually, let’s ask ourselves…why did this come up? I could talk about spelling errors and gripe over them at any time. As an author, it may even be risky to admit that mistakes get through at all!
It came up because my wife linked the following video to me off YouTube. It is titled “People Who Really Need To Go Back To School”. It features a TON of bad spelling or grammar errors. It also showcases a lot of comments made by people that cause you to doubt the effectiveness of today’s schools.
Now, I don’t know whether to feel better because little mistakes are so commonplace….or to be afraid, VERY AFRAID, that these mistakes happened in the first place.
While you enjoy the video linked below, I’m going to spend all night worrying what words I misspelled in this post and what other mistakes I just bared to the world.