Saturday, March 17, 2007

Typos -- A Writer's Nitemare


I just had to send out a fancy email to the ACFW membership promoting the sponsorship program for our 2007 conference. I'd been busy all day working on other things, and it was the last item on my to-do list before the week ended. So, I opened up a copy of the HTML email I'd sent before to publishers and agents and did a little tweaking in the narrative. Then I sent it to the ACFW email loop.

A few minutes later I received an email from one of the loop moderators who had withheld the email from the queue. I had a typo. Did I want to correct it and resend? Does Ben make rice? Is the sky blue? Of course I wanted to fix it. I corrected the mistake then resent it.

Then what to my wondering eyes should appear in my email in-box but a copy of the first email I sent. The one with the error!!! I wanted to die. Seems another moderator saw the post and released it before the other woman could delete it. I hate typos, and I hate them worse when they are in something that gets sent out. And I REALLY hate it when the document is sent to other writers!!! But, there it was in all its glory.

After advice from another board member I decided to not say anything because most people wouldn't notice the typo anyway. Well, at least one person noticed because when I turned on my compuer this morning I found an email from someone who pointed out the typo. She was very kind in how she did it, but still I know that if she noticed it and wrote me there are probably others who noticed and didn't write me.

We all make typos--even the most published of authors. So why does it bother me so much? Why do I think it's a reflection on me personally? It's not like everything I send out is loaded with typos. Sometimes when I write this blog, I notice a typo after it's been published on the Web. But with Blogger I can go back and fix it. I get a second chance and a third and fourth, if needed. This time I had no more chances.

What was that word I said God gave me for the year? Oh yeah, "humility." Gulp. I'm learning it big time.

5 comments:

Southern-fried Fiction said...

LOL - I sure can relate, Pam! My big problem is that I can't type without looking, but I type fast. So sometimes my fingers go faster than my brain. Result? Typos.

But I prefer to call it finger-dyslexia. Sounds like something you can forgive. You forgive me when the Board has a meeting in the chat room. Poor thing - you have to dicipher my mistypes.

My favorite one is when I try to type use and it comes out sue. Especially when I say I'm going to sue you for something.

This comment took 6 fixes, since Blogger doesn't have spellcheck.

*snicker*

Pamela S. Meyers said...

LOL I remember when you did that "sue" thing in an on-line board meeting and I said "huh?"

Wanna know something even funnier? I just read today's entry for the third or fourth time and guess what? I found a typo! Actually it was a missing word.

Don't go looking for it. I've fixed it. You don't think I'm going to leave it there do you??

Anonymous said...

Perfection--someday, right?

Pamela S. Meyers said...

Not yet, Sally! I just found another one! They're multiplying like rabbits! I fixed it, but I bet the next time I look at this entry I'll see another one!

LaShaunda said...

Hi Pam,

I stopped by to read your interview and decided to visit a little longer.

Great blog about ACFW.

Why is it we always catch our typos after we send out the email. I found a typo in an email I sent out yesterday to 50 people. These instead of this. UUUGH!

Nice blog, I'll be back for more visits.