I am the first to admit, I am a horrible speller. My grammar isn’t much better either. My freshman year in high school I earned a 43 for my grade in English! Sadly, three college degrees later, my spelling and grammar haven’t improved much from my freshman year. This is not for a lack of trying. I have read countless books on grammar and spelling and yet nothing seems to help me out much. Why this is, I have no clue. I’m guessing there is some short circuit in my brain that just won’t allow me to see misspelled words or grammatically incorrect sentences. In fact, in that last sentence I had three misspellings alone, thank goodness for spell check, for you won’t see them by the time this is posted.
When it comes to writing, good spelling and grammar are essential. At least when it comes to the final drafts. When it comes to your daily writing, don’t think about spelling. Obsessing over grammatical errors while you are trying to create can stifle your creativity. In fact it becomes one the dreadful “distractions”. Writers love to find things to distract them from their actual writing. Whether it be checking emails or doing ridiculous amounts of research or obsessing over a single line, anything that keeps you from writing is a distraction. Don’t let bad spelling become one of them.
If you are a fellow bad writer the best thing you can do is just write, get your stories out and worry about the technical side later. Bad spelling or grammar will not change the content of your story. They key is to write your heart out and ignore the six million red and green squiggly lines under your words. When you finish, hit the spell check. Hopefully that will correct a major chunk of the problems. Though, if you’re bad as I am, there will still be a lot of glaring mistakes. No matter how many times I read something over, I won’t see mistakes unless they are pointed out to me. It’s like I’m spelling blind. If this is the case with you, then you need to bring in help. Ask you’re mom, wife, girlfriend, friends, writing buddies or even a stranger to help you smooth out your work. Print out the pages, hand them a red pen and let them go to town. Then go back and put their fixes in. Hopefully at this point it will be readable to the average person.
If you are in my club, don’t worry, you are not alone. There are many, many famous bad spellers. Einstein, Winston Churchill, Da Vinci all had their problems with spelling. President Kennedy was ousted as a bad speller by his own wife. And the tremendously famous author Agatha Christie once wrote this-
“I, myself, was always recognized . . . as the "slow one" in the family. It was quite true, and I knew it and accepted it. Writing and spelling were always terribly difficult for me. My letters were without originality. I was . . . an extraordinarily bad speller and have remained so until this day.”
Some studies say that bad spelling is because the writer is too clever. Who did this study, I don’t know, but I like them. Personally, I think I’ll use that excuse next time someone points out a mistake in my writing. “Ahh, thank you for catching that mistake. It’s hard, I’m just… too clever to notice them.”
The bottom line is don’t let bad spelling keep you from writing. Can you imagine what the world would be like if Einstein or Da Vinci gave up? All you have to do is tell your story, let it come out, then go back and correct the technical aspects. And don’t be shy about asking for help, if you don’t, your story might never see the light of day. Bad spelling is sort of like laundry. If you get a stain in your shirt, you wash it. If it doesn’t come out, you’d take it to the cleaners. Professionals can get those stains out. Your writing is the same. Do your best to get all the mistakes out. Then take it to a professional, an editor, to get it perfect.
Those of you in my fraternity might want to check out some books on grammar like The Complete Idiots Guide to Grammar or Grammar Gremlins. Also there are many sites like, Writer’s Relief that offer editing services.
Like always, for more on my writing, classes and lectures, visit AuthorMike.com!
Read and Write Often
AuthorMike
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