…can be great lessons!
There are times when you make the silliest, weirdest and most embarrassing mistakes as a writer. It can be simple grammar issues, editing oops or other random uh-oh’s. Whatever the mistake, seeing it online or in print can be enough to send you scrambling for the covers vowing to never come out again, but take heart you can learn alot from goofs.
- Resilience – Key to being a freelancer, the ability to recover after a mistake or set back is an asset.
- Humility – Nothing like an over-inflated ego to land you in oopsie land. Certainty of the perfection of an article can lead to relaxed editing on your end or overconfidence in a publication can lead to leaving it up to them to catch any mistakes. Every so often a writer needs to be reminded of the importance of basics.
- Sense of Humor – Sometimes writers take themselves too seriously. It’s understandable, creative-types are prone to such seriousness, but sometimes you just have to laugh at your goof.
I goof up all the time. Missed punctuation, wrong words, etc., but there is always a lesson to be found. Online you can often get the information corrected, in print you’re out of luck, that’s one clip you’re down, but it’s likely a mistake you won’t make again.
Okay FWJ ‘fess up – share an embarrassing mistake!