I am publishing my serial novel, Eleven Days Toward Death, on my website at a rate of one chapter per week. This week, while proofing and editing it, I made an embarrassing mistake when trying to write the word “foreword” but wrote “forward.” It didn’t dawn on me that it was a different word. To me, “forward” made perfect sense. Wrong! The regional pronunciation of the letters “rd” following various vowels doesn’t sound different. It was a homophone problem—words that sound alike but have different meanings and spellings. Homophones in AI don’t always get caught. Neither ProWritingAid nor Grammarly, both AI writing tools, saw it, but that was because it appeared as if it were a chapter title.
As a writer, I have forgotten many words in my vocabulary. I type it, and a sneaky homophone walks across the page. A former business partner always teased me about using only SAT words. It always irked me because I didn’t take the SAT, nor did I study for college entrance exams, as he had. In my rural area, you just drove fifty miles and took the ACT test--no prep. They were not SAT words but words I knew because I read a lot of adult and classic literature between fifth grade and high school.
This reiterated two writer truths: (1) AI has some learning to do, as does this writer, and (2) editors are essential to the writing process. I don’t have the money now.
So, after that true confession, I’ll end with a quote.
You should be far more concerned with your current trajectory than with your current results.
—James Clear
Note to self: mistakes are okay because they help you progress toward your goals.
“You should be far more concerned with your current trajectory than with your current results.”
—James Clear
Note to self: mistakes are okay because they help you improve and move toward your goals.
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