My Favorite Mistake

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KellyWittmann
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My Favorite Mistake

Post by KellyWittmann » October 4th, 2010, 4:51 pm

A few weeks ago, I wrote an email to a good friend when I was exhausted and upset. Last week, when I decided to write her again, I reread the first email to refresh my memory as to what I had and hadn't told her about a particular incident. And there I saw it: "it's" instead of "its."

I mean... "It's" instead of "its," people! Come on! What kind of person who calls herself a writer and has published a bunch of books does that?

Me, I guess. Not often. Hardly ever. But the evidence was right there before my eyes and I could not deny it. Let the self-flagellation begin! "Oh, my God... Why in an email to _____, of all people? She's so smart. She has a degree from Yale. What must she think of me?" Of course, this was all projection. _____ is a very kind person who would never think less of me for a grammatical error. Yet it just bugged me for days.

Do you ever torture yourself about silly mistakes like this? The cure for your condition is at your fingertips, and it doesn't hurt a bit. Google "jack kerouac manuscript" or "f. scott fitzgerald manuscript" and take a good long look at some of the image results. Go to the library and check out the diary of Virginia Woolf or the letters of Vita Sackville-West. These were smart people who made typos and spelling errors and grammatical mistakes. Not a lot of them, but they did happened.

I'm not telling you that it's "okay" to be sloppy and just not give a damn about spelling and grammar. Keep working on them every day of your writing life. But realize that you are human, and always will be, and will make a few mistakes here and there. Your manuscript is not the center of the universe and the world will not stop turning and other people won't care a fraction as much as you think they will.

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