Error on the Author

 

"I enjoyed your post," came the note from a beloved reader, one who generally reads them all.

I was pleased to get that, and it sent me back to read the post again. I'm always curious if there was a particular passage or theme that was the cause for the feedback.

Within five seconds, I found a typo.

Then, I found another.

I quickly fixed them both, blood pressure elevating and sighs sighing.

I edit every post myself. I reread them but am often bleary-eyed as I do.

So I catch things often hours, days, months, and even years later.

And it drives me crazy.

Of course, it does given I lean towards being a perfectionist. Naturally, that's simply not possible.

It used to really make me insane but as I've learned over these nearly 18 years on "Exit 55," I'm not alone. There is a certain level of appreciation in knowing that.

I've discovered errors on "professional" sites. Plenty of them, in fact. I always assume those have editors checking every punctuation, dotted i, and crossed t.

I would be wrong.

So I've seen them all. I've seen them in emails and blog posts and stories and more.

Thus no matter how annoyed I get at myself, I take solace in the understanding that I'm human.

As is often said, editing oneself is difficult. Overall, I do a passable job at that, but things slip through for myriad reasons. 

There's exhaustion, distraction, time, and other reasons that really are just poor excuses.

Once upon a time, a fellow writer asked how I found the time to write blog posts. The funny thing is that this was said long before the "Project 365" era began.

Yes, like Ms. Swift, I have eras. No, I will not be going on a worldwide tour to perform them. She has talent. Me? Meh.

To me, sitting down to write for a few minutes is a habit, though there are nights that I'd love to not do it. But, commitment nut that I am, I don't find it difficult to carve out a few minutes. Also, I don't sleep a lot. Unless there is research involved, most posts can be assembled within an hour or less. In fact, most of the time drag for me can be...

Oh, look, a cookie!

(Sorry, that was a joke. I crack myself up.)

Now, where was I?

Oh yeah, the biggest time suck for me is 1) naming the damn posts (and my post names aren't good at all) and, more, 2) finding a suitable picture.

Thus begins the search for pictures that aren't copyrighted, are the right size, and correctly attributed.

For instance, I have no idea what picture I'll use on this post. To that point, I came up with an idea as I was typing just now but it's super-frustrating when a Google search doesn't find that shot.

Narrator: Rob did not find the image he wanted.

I suppose what I'm saying in all of this, beyond the inner frustrations of my own errors, is that I don't just sit down and write. I mean, I do, but like "Doubleheader" or game broadcasts, there is a level of preparation that does go into all of this.

It isn't like I'm lazy and unprepared. Nor would I accuse others of being so. Oh, sure, I can ad-lib a lot, but there's an effort into that.

So, much like "Where's Waldo," enjoy looking for my errors.

I'd say consider it a drinking game but that might be dangerous.