Writing Quirks
Human minds are indeed strange. We love patterns and often do not realize when we are traveling down the same road. I am no exception, and my life is full of habits, themes, and common mistakes that extend deep into my writing. For example, I love to spell the color grey as gray. While this alternate spelling is not technically wrong, readers prefer popular spelling. And for the life of me, I cannot spell recieve. Receeve? Receiv? Gahhhh!
What can I do to mitigate this issue? Fortunately, Microsoft Word immediately can repair most spelling issues, and I added incorrectly spelled words to the auto-corrector. However, I have a bigger problem; the word gray is a perfect example. It is spelled correctly, but the accepted spelling is grey.
My solution is a file I call “things to check for.” It contains my known writing issues, formatting issues, and other things editors have pointed out. I thought it would be amusing (painful) to present my list to show the depth of my writing insanity.
Wait a minute. Why would you care? After all, this is my list. Showing another writer my list might inspire them to create their own, and my errors are probably funny to talented writers.
Direct changes:
Abilities to ability
Afterwards to afterward
AM to a.m. (Also check PM)
Angerly to angrily
Apricate to appreciate
Apricated to appreciated
Apricating to appreciating
Backwards to backward
Bill instead of BIll (Really, I cannot spell my own name?) (That is actually me typing really fast.)
Came back to return
Complementary to complimentary
County country
Defiantly to Definitely
Dialog to dialogue
Discretely to discreetly
Duffle bag to duffel bag
Got up to stood
Imbursed to embarrassed
Imbursement to embarrassment
Interoperate to interpret
Interoperation to interpretation
Leapt to leaped
Lesion or lesson
Nodded head to nodded
Ok to OK
Perusing to pursuing
Prayed to preyed
Sat back to leaned back
Secession to session
Sizeable to sizable
Stood up to stood
Towards to toward
Umm to um
Woke up to woke
% to percent
English logic:
Less than fewer than
Word overuse:
Amusing
Humor
Humorous
Humorously
Just
Of course
Formatting:
Search for “^t ” (Eliminate unnecessary tabs)
Replace “ ^p” with “^p” (Eliminate unnecessary spaces)
Replace “. ^p” with “.^p” (Eliminate unnecessary spaces)
Replace “^p ” with “^p” (Eliminate leading spaces)
Replace “^p^t“ with “^p” (Eliminate unnecessary tabs)
What will my future list be like? As my writing skills to locate problems improve, my error list and autocorrect entries will grow. Plus, tools such as Grammarly and ProWritingAid will be better able to analyze my documents, and this list will be less necessary. Yay, there is hopes. Dang, another tick.
You’re the best -Bill
April 01, 2020 Updated December 27, 2024
What can I do to mitigate this issue? Fortunately, Microsoft Word immediately can repair most spelling issues, and I added incorrectly spelled words to the auto-corrector. However, I have a bigger problem; the word gray is a perfect example. It is spelled correctly, but the accepted spelling is grey.
My solution is a file I call “things to check for.” It contains my known writing issues, formatting issues, and other things editors have pointed out. I thought it would be amusing (painful) to present my list to show the depth of my writing insanity.
Wait a minute. Why would you care? After all, this is my list. Showing another writer my list might inspire them to create their own, and my errors are probably funny to talented writers.
Direct changes:
Abilities to ability
Afterwards to afterward
AM to a.m. (Also check PM)
Angerly to angrily
Apricate to appreciate
Apricated to appreciated
Apricating to appreciating
Backwards to backward
Bill instead of BIll (Really, I cannot spell my own name?) (That is actually me typing really fast.)
Came back to return
Complementary to complimentary
County country
Defiantly to Definitely
Dialog to dialogue
Discretely to discreetly
Duffle bag to duffel bag
Got up to stood
Imbursed to embarrassed
Imbursement to embarrassment
Interoperate to interpret
Interoperation to interpretation
Leapt to leaped
Lesion or lesson
Nodded head to nodded
Ok to OK
Perusing to pursuing
Prayed to preyed
Sat back to leaned back
Secession to session
Sizeable to sizable
Stood up to stood
Towards to toward
Umm to um
Woke up to woke
% to percent
English logic:
Less than fewer than
Word overuse:
Amusing
Humor
Humorous
Humorously
Just
Of course
Formatting:
Search for “^t ” (Eliminate unnecessary tabs)
Replace “ ^p” with “^p” (Eliminate unnecessary spaces)
Replace “. ^p” with “.^p” (Eliminate unnecessary spaces)
Replace “^p ” with “^p” (Eliminate leading spaces)
Replace “^p^t“ with “^p” (Eliminate unnecessary tabs)
What will my future list be like? As my writing skills to locate problems improve, my error list and autocorrect entries will grow. Plus, tools such as Grammarly and ProWritingAid will be better able to analyze my documents, and this list will be less necessary. Yay, there is hopes. Dang, another tick.
You’re the best -Bill
April 01, 2020 Updated December 27, 2024
Follow me
