11 Responses so far

1. 1. Matt Jarpe on Aug 16th, 2007 at 9:49 am

   My excuse for poor spelling is that I was taught to read using some experimental program back in the early ’70’s. It worked for reading but I’m permanently crippled when it comes to spelling. Fortunatlely for me, word processors came along to save me. Most authors I’ve talked to about this don’t like the red underline spell check on the fly feature of Word, but I love it. It sometimes takes me two or three tries to get a word right, but I can’t continue until I get rid of that red underline. The green underlines can go fuck themselves.

2. 2. Mark Terry on Aug 16th, 2007 at 10:08 am

   I’m a good speller, (yeah, I spell good) but I find I get worse the older I get. Weird.

   I suspect being a good speller & grammarian (this stuff I know, but not, like, intellectually, it’s a hearing thing) can make your writing more efficient because your rewrites and proofing go more quickly. The biggest thing probably is to go over things carefully.

   For your novels, once you can afford it, it might be worth your while to hire a good copy editor to go over it before turning it in. I think I’m so-so as a copyeditor, but I’ve run into a few that are pretty amazing. And then I’ve run into them that don’t seem to know where their job ends and mine begins, but that’s a different issue.

3. 3. Steve Buchheit on Aug 16th, 2007 at 10:44 am

   I’m still a horrible speller. Those homophones? Guilty. But th emore I write the better I’m getting. I agree with Matt Jarpe on Word’s underlining, although having worked in a cubicle environment most of my adult life, I can ignore them while I’m composing, and then use them to highlight where I need to edit when I get a dry spell of words.

   Also, the best thing about Mac OS X is it’s built in spell checker (doesn’t work in Word though, mumble frotz). Insert your curser on a word and hit Apple-Control-D and you’ll get a pop-up box with the definition. If there’s no definition you have a little “More” button to open the Dictionary and look for possible spellings. This function had helped mucho mucho since I’ve found it. Especially with the homophones.

   I do find that I now spell better. Sometimes when I spell words correctly the first time I get a charge out of it. “Hey, lookie me, I spelled ’spelunking’ correctly the first time!”

4. 4. Steve Buchheit on Aug 16th, 2007 at 10:46 am

   Forgot to say this issue is mostly a “you can’t have any pudding until you eat your meat.” It’s a canard designed to keep people from being creative (which is threatening).

5. 5. David Louis Edelman on Aug 16th, 2007 at 11:08 am

   I’m sorry to say that I’m something of a spelling and grammar Nazi. Intellectually, I know that I shouldn’t be. There are plenty of people who simply don’t bother to go back and correct mistakes, because it interrupts their train of thought. But I automatically give blog posts and comments less respect if they confuse “its” with “it’s,” or “you’re” with “your.”

   Luckily, Steve B., I’ve read a lot of your comments before and I know you’re an intelligent guy, so I can safely look past your misuse of “it’s” in comment 3 above.

6. 6. Steve Buchheit on Aug 16th, 2007 at 12:11 pm

   David Louis Edelman, but I used it correctly in post #4.

   Yeah. I don’t know what it is with “its/it’s” lately. I’ve been typing it wrong the past three months. It’s begining to get like the word “about,” which I type, “a*b*o*t*u*Delete*Delete*u*t.”

7. 7. Marie Brennan on Aug 16th, 2007 at 12:32 pm

   David, I’m with you. I proofread everything I write, including e-mails and comments, and it drives me batshit when I come across things riddled with errors, especially from people who (according to my subconscious) “should know better,” like writers.

   I keep that reaction on a leash, because I know it isn’t fair, but I can’t make it go away.

8. 8. Amy Sterling Casil on Aug 16th, 2007 at 1:00 pm

   Well I guess I’m a freak of nature. My ms. are pretty clean. However, I have a mild form of dyslexia too (just typed “syslexia”). I have seen the funniest, messiest, most spelling-error riddled and grammar-challenged ms. out there from pro writers.

   I think the content is more important than “clean ms.” However – I’m a freak of nature because I guess I have ODD or something too. I just keep going over things, and I won’t even talk about how I learned to type or do that too. It’s almost like talking. No – it’s better because I can’t say all manner of things that are easy for me to write. Like this.

9. 9. Amy Sterling Casil on Aug 16th, 2007 at 1:00 pm

   ODD – I think I meant “OCD” like Mr. Monk.

10. 10. Wyman Cooke on Aug 17th, 2007 at 1:29 pm

    I think I’m a pretty good speller. There are a few words where I transpose letters and have to correct each time. Said becomes sadi and so on. I sometimes have trouble with long words, which is why Spell Check is your friend. Sometimes, though, it’s your fiend, since it can’t spot the wrong word that’s correctly spelled. In War Of Honor, for example, center of mass is rendered as center of ass.

11. 11. MFitz on Aug 20th, 2007 at 10:09 pm

    I read someplace that “I can’t spell so I can’t be a writer” is the number one excuse people give for not trying to become published.

    I’m borderline dyslexic and ADD and super poopy speller from a family of wretched spellers. To top that off I had some nerve damage in my left arm/hand that makes me a poor typer too, Although that’s gotten a little better with time and exersize.

    Spell check is not the complete answer. The first time I saw a word processor with spellcheck every hair on my body stood up and I got little tingles all over as if it was God’s personal gift to me.