Where Am I: favorite chair
Listening To: coverage on the latest in Haiti
Proofreading. We all know this is a good idea, yeah? We're careful about this, aren't we? Sure! Honest! I'm careful. CAREFUL! Well, except for that one short short I sent in to the Writer's Digest "Your Story" competition last week. I thought I'd done such a good job, too. I stayed true to their prompt, was well within the word limit and I even felt pretty pleased about how clever I'd been with the plot. So, what was my downfall? The title brought me low.
I generally get my title for whatever I'm writing late in the process. In this case, I really didn't have a title when I'd finished. So, I sat staring at it and thinking about it for awhile, put it away, brought it back out and looked at it some more. Finally, I put a title to it (nothing overly inspired, I'm sad to say) and sent it off with a feeling of relief that I'd done it. It wasn't until later that I noticed there was a TYPO IN MY TITLE!
It wasn't the sort of thing that the spell-checker would catch and I just wasn't careful enough. I didn't catch it either. I could make some excuses, I suppose, but that's all they'd be. Excuses. The truth is, I blew it. I broke one of the most basic rules. I just didn't proofread properly. I think it is very likely that it will keep anyone from even considering my otherwise (hopefully) clever story.
Lesson learned, believe me. Lesson most definitely learned. If I was reasonably careful before, I will be trebly so, now. Attention to detail is so important for a writer. So many things depend on the writer's accuracy, you know? For the reader, inconsistencies and mistakes are so distracting. They take the reader out of the story and really, that's the death of a good tale, in my humble opinion.
So, I have learned another important, albeit painful, lesson on being meticulous. I guess that's not really so bad.
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It's so hard to see your own mistakes. Other folks can spot them easily, but somehow, when we've made one ourselves, we just can't see it!
ReplyDeleteDon't beat yourself up too much. Hopefully a human will read it and see how funny and clever it is- and overlook that one small thing. *fingers crossed*
Oh, you poor thing!! (Though, it's a little bit funny, you have to admit!! XP) You can definitely never proofread enough, though I think sometimes you look at your own work so much that it's impossible to spot little things.
ReplyDeleteMy sister was telling me the other day, she knows this girl who is a publisher and it's amazing how many people submit their resumes for jobs like editing and proofreading, and their resumes are riddled with spelling mistakes!!
At least, in general, you're very careful about this sort of thing, rather than a basic lack of what is acceptable. I overheard a conversation the other day between these two 20-something girls about how they don't see the need to spell things properly, they just write things how they would in a text message!! You can imagine my reaction, I'm sure!! XP