It’s a typo! They happen.

If there is one constant within the world of publishing, it would be that typos happen. It doesn't matter how many times you go through a piece of written work, there will always be something that's missed. You could have six different sets of eyes on it, and things still slip through. And the longer that piece of writing is, the more likely that errors get missed.

To complicate matters, you might have the cleanest copy on the planet, but errors creep in during typesetting too. At every stage of the writing/editing/publishing process, there is an opportunity for an error to be introduced—and for that error to get missed.

It happens.

I'll be the first to grant you that when a piece of writing is riddled with typos and grammatical errors, it's frustrating to read. However, I have said it time and time again: if a story is gripping, most readers will be willing to overlook the odd typo or grammatical error.

As writers, we need to accept that typos WILL happen.

As editors, we need to accept that we're NOT perfect.

However, there are some people out there who are Grammar Nazis from hell and will publicly shame you for making innocent typographical errors. It's because of these jerks (and that's what they are) that many writers and editors despise the idea of blogging. They're afraid that their writing might be torn to shreds because of those innocent mistakes. But what the Grammar Nazis forget is that mistakes happen.

The production schedules for a blog are tight. Certain steps within the editing process are sometimes missed. The thorough care that we give our novel writing is not given to this short piece that is going to go up on the web within hours. Newspaper articles are much the same in that respect. Mistakes creep in, it's the nature of the beast. But when the public shaming starts…

***Breathe… Just breathe…***

I think it's time to put reality back into the blogging world and remind a few editors that we're only human.

When a post to help explain things becomes an excuse for a public attack...

On Friday February 14, 2020, my post on literary, commercial and upmarket fiction went live. A few days later, it was picked up by an editors' group in Victoria, Australia and shared on their public feeds.

That particular aspect was cool. I had written something that others found useful and wanted to share. However, what was meant to be an article to help explain confusing terminology quickly became an excuse to tear apart the writing for typos.

Yep… Typos.

When the article was published, I had written: Is commercial fiction interior to literary fiction?

It's one letter, people, and a letter that can easily be missed when you've been staring at the same bit of writing for days on end. I don't know how many times over the years that a t got confused for an f, and I can guarantee that I'm not the only one to ever make this mistake.

However, once the one error was pointed out, that seemed to be an invitation to tear the post apart and point out all of the other errors that might have been in that post, including an error with a plural verb. The Grammar Nazis went to town.

Talk about taking ALL of the excitement out of the fact that I had written something that people wanted to share…

With the exception of this public statement, highlighting the irritating behavior, I publicly thanked the ones who pointed out the errors and made the corrections.

Plotting out murder can sometimes be so much fun. The joys of writing crime fiction.

(Then I plotted their gruesome demise in one of my manuscripts where the characters come out of the books to murder the writers and editors who should know better!)

It's a blog post, so fix it.

So, no one is perfect. Mistakes happen. Even editors will have an off day.

Does that mean you should never publish anything for fear that you make a mistake? (Please don't make me answer that rhetorical question.)

People, don't be so afraid of the odd typo and grammatical error that you never put anything out into the big, wide world. You wrote that piece, be it a blog post, a short story, a poem or that novel, because you had something to say that you wanted to share with others. Yes, you should edit everything before it goes out the door, but it doesn't need to be perfect.

Never aim for perfection within your writing. Aim for something that you can be proud of. (And I'm still proud of that blog post. Others have already mentioned to me how they finally get the difference between literary, commercial and upmarket fiction.)

Now, for the Grammar Nazis and blog posts…

If someone points out an issue with your post, highlighting typos and grammatical errors, by all means, go and correct the buggers. That's the joy of blog posts. It's so easy to go in and change things. Up to you if you want to thank them or not. But do remember that the way you behave publicly will have an impact on your reputation as a writer (or editor as the case may be).

As for my recent experience with the Grammar Nazis, I do wish that they had chosen to highlight the typos privately. It's not like I make it hard for anyone to contact me. I have all my social media links posted directly on my website, and there's a contact form there too. But I guess some people just prefer to make a mockery of others on public channels. Perhaps it makes them feel better about their own failings.

I have since made the corrections to the offending post, if for no other reason than to shut the Grammar Nazis up.

I'm not perfect and I publicly admit it.

I could have stayed completely quiet about the typos that were found in my recent post, but I wanted my readers to understand that I'm not perfect and I don't claim to be. If I can publicly admit that typos happen, yet still be prepared to get the work out there, then you can too.

Learn your craft. Learn to edit. Write good content. And most importantly, feel proud of the work that you share with the world.

Get to writing, peeps. I look forward to reading some awesome work soon!