Tuesday, February 06, 2007

My lying eyes

You you would think, wouldn't you, that as we call oursleves writers, that we would be inpossession of optic nerves so atuned to mistakes that they would jump from the page and headbutt us between the eyes.
In editing a couple of pieces of work over the last few days it had come to my attention that this in fact isnt true The brain is a wonderfull thing, it reads the words and interprets then, reading the sentence as a whole and ignoring any glaring cock-ups making way for a smooth flow of text.

I recently sent a story into the Moon Topples competitition only realising afterwards that, in fact, I had in fact, repeated myself badly. I had read this piece over and over again, carefuly checking each spelling apotrophe, comma and general writing style.
Why then is it so easy to spot the mistake in others peoples work? Fuck nose?

16 comments:

Unknown said...

me too - that always happens me!

Unknown said...

I know the feeling Minx. There was one sentence in mine that was so wrong, so I sent it to a friend to read it and she sent it back duly corrected and could I spot her correction? Could I hell. I also realised when I re-read it at home that she had added the word in a different colour to the rest of the text!

The Moon Topples said...

I think our brains are bad at our own owrk because they must recognize that it knows these words already, and then yawns and moves into "skim" mode.

The Moon Topples said...

And since no one else seems to be saying anything about it:

Yes, we noticed that your post is riddled through with errors of all kinds.

You are the cleverest Minxie in all the realm.

Unknown said...

There is nuffin wrong with me post, MT, as well you know, but YOU spelt 'recognise' wrong!

Unknown said...

And there is no 'ie' in Minxy. Honestly, these people from Sheecargo!

Anonymous said...

I thought that only happened to me.

Anonymous said...

I have all my posts edited by a publishing house as I expect, confidently, to have it all published in a best selling book, sometime this year

Unknown said...

No, Marie, all the best people are editorially challenged.

And Mutley, your blog is an altar that worships at the feet of perfect English. One hopes that a book of 'Haykus' shall also be appearing on the shelves in the not too distant future - I am still 'moved' by the sausage.

Gorilla Bananas said...

The trick is to edit your work as if it were written by someone else, preferably a hated rival with whom you want to find fault. I try to imagine my posts were written by a snarling baboon when I edit them. Alas, I am rarely successful.

Unknown said...

It is written by someone else, and she writes everything with Debi Alper's red pen in mind!

It is always good to keep the image of a wickedly good editor in yer head. If it wasn't for Debi, and the newly emerged Skint, 'Coven of One' wouldn't have been the book it is.
I think I should devote a post to this, hmmm......

Saaleha said...

Actually I didn't spot any errors in yours. Which is probably why mine have so many :-(

Unknown said...

That's because there weren't any, Saaleha!

Debi said...

Did someone mention my name?

Unknown said...

No, just yer evil red pen!

Debi said...

My red pen is sulking now. Evil indeed ...