Color Me Red

I find them everywhere: spelling mistakes and grammatical errors; they glare at me from social media, signposts, you name it. I find them everywhere except in my own writing, and THAT, my friends, drives me crazy! I would be completely lost without spell check. But the problem I encounter so often is that I will inadvertently spell a word I had not intended to write. Of course, that word I spell correctly. Spell check cannot tell me, "Hey, knucklehead, do you REALLY want to say that?"

Sometimes this has hilarious consequences.  Take my last post example: now, before you quickly look for the error, another writer friend pointed it out, and it is now corrected.  In my case, I wanted to say "paint that as well"; instead, I said, "paint that ass well." One little letter and a totally different meaning. Embarrassed? Yes, but I also found it funny.

I once had a proofreader spot on my college's newspaper. What a mistake! Yes, I caught quite a few errors, but honestly I was down there because I had a thing for one of the guys who also worked on the paper. Let's just say my attention to detail was lacking a bit when he was around.

I remember a mistake that my boyfriend in college made. It was such a great blunder that it made the list of best mistakes for that professor's class. The paper was a well-written piece on George Washington. However, one little typo changed history. The final sentence read, "This is why George Washington will go down in the 'anals' of history." Again, one little letter makes such a big difference.

So I invite you to share with me some of the best (worst) mistakes you've made and didn't catch in your writing. How did you end up finding it?

Don't Say I Didn't Tell You.

Lisa