I’ve been a lazy writer. Too often I let spellchecker serve as my proofreader and subsequently publish some foolish errors. I’m sure the seasoned writers will find this revelation a bit elementary, but I needed to learn it so I figure others might as well. Here are the errors that highlighted my haste. They appeared in What I Learned, Chasing Fireflies by Charles Martin.

It’s a story that’s gripping, but more importantly it’s a story that matters, and I want my writing be similar.

Spellchecker cannot find what doesn’t exist. Stinkin’ “to!”

The story is set in Georgia. I’m from the Peach State and might place a story their one day.

You may not believe me, but I know the difference between there, their, and they’re. It’s a mistake of hurry, not an evidence of ignorance, and this is why I have to stop depending on spellchecker to be my proofreader.

The spellchecker is not equal to a good proofreading.

Thankfully, I applied what I learned as I processed my latest post, What I learned: Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers, and avoided this careless error.

Is there a place where there’s a little too much of your character’s experiences invading your mine?

The published post correctly had the word spelled, m-i-n-D. Good thing I let being more careful invade my mind.

As an aside, am I the only one who has the following habit of hurry? When writing I will write the final letter of a preceding word as the first letter in the one that follows. In fact, I did it while writing the previous sentence. It first read, “… letter in the one tha tfollows.” How weird is that? Am I the only one? Maybe it could be m ytrademark?”

Keep Discovering Writing.