Confess your writerly sins

ink wench · Sep 28, 2007

Make me feel better, please! I just got back fabulous comments from a beta (thanks, DA!) and discovered that throughout my entire MS, I'd written "alter" when I meant to write "altar." :Headbang:

I do know the difference, I swear! For some reason though, I typed it wrong every single freaking time (at least 15 times) and I never caught it in edits.

So please, make me feel better. Confess what stupid, embarrassing, ridiculous mistakes you repeatedly make even though you know better.

MidnightMuse · Sep 28, 2007

Well, I'm guilty of constantly forgetting which hand one of my MC's has an implant in. It's the left.

Or the right.

I forget.

Bubastes · Sep 28, 2007

I'm a good speller, yet I misspell the words "accommodate" and "commitment" every darn time. Why these two particular words? I have no idea.

jennifer75 · Sep 28, 2007

I before E except/accept after C but why is it the other way around when following a W? And my most common:

Definitely - took me forever to get used to not spelling it Definately. Shush.

I always want to spell Familiar like this Familar. Why?

I just figured out that the E preceding Specially does not make it a latin word, it is actually how you spell Especially.

I've got more. Just can't think right now.

Yes, I know, I can be a complete bonehead.

.. oh I still have a hard time with Desert and Dessert (thanks to the SweetStuff rule I've now got it down) and my Accepts and Excepts, Affects/ed and Effects/ed.

jennifer75 · Sep 28, 2007

MeowGirl said:
I'm a good speller, yet I misspell the words "accommodate" and "commitment" every darn time. Why these two particular words? I have no idea.

Meee tooooo. Double letters often get me.

aadams73 · Sep 28, 2007

jennifer75 said:
Definitely - took me forever to get used to not spelling it Definately. Shush.

Definitely is the bane of my writerly existence too. Ot instead of to is another I always mistype.

Bubastes · Sep 28, 2007

Oh, the word "Mediterranean" gets me every time too. I do think it's those double letters. Which ones are doubled, and where do they go?

Kate Thornton · Sep 28, 2007

I mistype the word "account" - transposing the second "c" and the "o" - it looks awful in the ms.

WVWriterGirl · Sep 28, 2007

So elementary that it is embarrassing...its and it's. I have to check it every. time.

jennifer75 · Sep 28, 2007

WVWriterGirl said:
So elementary that it is embarrassing...its and it's. I have to check it every. time.

Oh yea, well I had to check these two to make sure you were'nt slipping something in to be clever.

Damn those E's and A's and double R's! Argh!

Shadow_Ferret · Sep 28, 2007

Sometimes I write the wrong same sounding word.

Like taught when I actually mean, "the rope was taut."

And shown when I really meant, "the light shone brightly."

ANd of course, at the end I always have to do a search for its/it's because I have never EVER gotten that one right. I have a mental block against it. I even have a post-it note on my monitor and I still get it wrong.

Higgins · Sep 28, 2007

MeowGirl said:
Oh, the word "Mediterranean" gets me every time too. I do think it's those double letters. Which ones are doubled, and where do they go?

I too know the agony of "Mediterranean"...and "Doppleganger" (yes its Doppelganger, thanks for the 500th time spellchecker) and...silhoutte and etiquette (those might be wrong)....and camouflage (? sure why not) and sometimes annihilate.

There are plenty of others. I run spell-checker a lot. Just for the elementary embarrassing hell of it. No...actually because I have to.

jennifer75 · Sep 28, 2007

I'm gonna say it again....

http://wordweb.info/free

I can't tell you how many times it has saved me, and you don't have to open a new browser window to use it! Simply hilight your word and click on the icon on your task bar. Simple!

MidnightMuse · Sep 28, 2007

Lightning. I always type Lightening first, then have to fix it.

maestrowork · Sep 28, 2007

Bufty caught me with this one: "Annunciation" instead of "enunciation." I make that mistake ALL THE TIME.

joyce · Sep 28, 2007

I get hung up on the word had. When I edit I see the darn word so many times I think I'll scream.

jennifer75 · Sep 28, 2007

MidnightMuse said:
Lightning. I always type Lightening first, then have to fix it.

Depends on your story of course:

Noun: lightning lItning
Abrupt electric discharge from cloud to cloud or from cloud to earth accompanied by the emission of light

Noun: lightening lIt(u)ning
Descent of the uterus into the pelvic cavity that occurs late in pregnancy; the foetus is said to have dropped

MidnightMuse · Sep 28, 2007

Yeah, but my MC's are always dudes

Stew21 · Sep 28, 2007

Kate Thornton said:
I mistype the word "account" - transposing the second "c" and the "o" - it looks awful in the ms.

I bet it does! :roll:

acocunt

maestrowork · Sep 28, 2007

When I'm tired I have a tendency of missing all my "not"s. So "can't" becomes "can" and "will not" becomes "will" -- of course, with disastrous result.

I have also been known to mix "theirs" with "there's" sometimes. Shame!

Azraelsbane · Sep 28, 2007

loathe and loath... I always mix them up!

Also, horde and hoard, and I should know better, since I play World of Warcraft.

maestrowork · Sep 28, 2007

"Board" vs. "broad." I always have to stop and think about it for a second.

VeggieChick · Sep 28, 2007

MidnightMuse said:
Lightning. I always type Lightening first, then have to fix it.

me too!

DeleyanLee · Sep 28, 2007

Or how about the ever popular "affect" and "effect" mix-up. I know better and it still drives me nuts.

Shadow_Ferret · Sep 28, 2007

MidnightMuse said:
Lightning. I always type Lightening first, then have to fix it.

Oh, I was just editing yesterday and saw I had lighting instead of lightning. Zeus throwing a bolt of lighting makes me think he's throwing flourescent tubes.

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