Mistakes! Argh! – I hate them (don’t we all) – Fast editing can cause this example from the past, “an assortment of characters” is supposed to become “a range of characters” – only, of course, “assorted” changes to “range” but I forget to change the “an” to “a” – so out it popped, showing the world that here’s one “writer” who hasn’t got a handle on grammar – IT’S NOT TRUE, I TELL YOU, it’s the flaw of fast editing!
I do read what I post. Honestly. I read it several times as I write it up, again before I hit that publish button, and – fortunately – once more after it’s out there. Perhaps seeing it in a different format has things jump out that I otherwise miss, but I DO see the errors (and yes, fix them).
Meanwhile, of course, a bunch of people have already seen my fumbling result and the whole stands out like clear advertising that I really don’t have a handle on writing!!!
Heck yes, spelling and grammatical mistakes annoy the [insert expletive-of-your-choice] out of me, but only when those mistakes are mine.
On a scale of 1 to 10, it pans out like this:
Other people’s errors… 1
Other people’s errors in books… 3
My errors… 12
My errors in books… 375
*
I know. I should slow down. Trouble is, I trust my fingers to know what they are doing and my mind doesn’t seem to register the slip up until I look at it yet again.
I’m sure I’m not alone in this, we’re all human.
For the most part I’m a fairly fast typist, but my mind is directing from someplace way ahead and my fingers are keeping up with me as best they can – words get abbreviated or missed altogether. Sometimes they double up or words are supplanted with other words that form from pattern recognition that has gone the wrong path (our might become out, for instance). Most of my mistakes, however, come through editing, when I’m changing things and/or swapping things about. I find more errors in places that I have edited than were ever there in the first place!
Makes me think I should write it once and after that leave the thing jolly well alone.
Oh well… back into the fray.
Have a great day, everyone.
Cheers!
😀
Allyson
Bloodstone Sci Fi 
I read my posts way too much, and still catch minor grammar snags after the third or fourth time. Most of it is me being a picky sod about my exact wording, but sometimes it’s outright typoes. Dang muscle memory.
I’m with you there – it’s especially important for writers to get it right. I look back on some of my early posts and I cringe, and don’t get me started on my Bio! The big thing I do is leave out words altogether. Even when it’s pointed out to me, I’ll sit there, thinking, “Where? There’s nothing wrong with it!” THEN (finally) see I’ve left out a word – usually “for”, “of” or “the”.
When I’m proofing my stuff I tend to take a more active “vocal” voice in my head, and it reads strictly what’s there. Helps tremendously to “dramatize” my own words.
That’s great advice. I’ve found actually reading it out loud picks up a few errors for me, but I’m often in too much of a dang hurry! 😀
I’m a semi-narcissist for my own words, analyzing them for their logical “rightness”, and promptly fixing any cases where that is not so.
It’s weird, isn’t it? I don’t mind a mistake in someone else’s work, but I’ll re-upload the entire interior of a book based on one typo or something minor wrong in my formatting (like a single widow or orphan). I think most writers are perfectionists to some degree. We put our souls into our work.