Take time to deliberate, but when the time for action has arrived, stop thinking and go in.
- Napoleon

Sunday, October 19, 2008

My Subconscious is Illiterate

Illiterate or, at the very least, ignorant.

I know the difference between too, to and two. I also know all about they're, there and their. Know and No? Got it down. Blue, bleu and blew? Like the back of my hand.

But my subconscious hasn't a clue. It takes over my fingers when I'm not paying attention and throws the wrong homonym in the mix. It's also been known to jump in and substitute one small word for another. Like 'on' for 'of' or the unprecedented 'who' for 'now' (which happened just the other day). I know what I want to type, but then I look up and a completely different word is sitting in its place.

On the other hand, my subconscious could just be a dirty bastard. For all I know it substitutes a wrong word, and then sits back and giggles at me.

Thank goodness for editing. For the most part I catch these tricks it plays (or to be kind, its stupidity) in my stories - either through my own editing or my lovely CPs and BRs. The problem is, I don't edit the blog. If I don't catch the mistakes the first time through, or if they don't jump out at me after I post, they're there for all to see. (Including potential agents... Ack!)

The other day, Janet Reid mentioned something about the blogs she visits out of her 'followers' widget. She said to make sure everything on the blog is correct so she, and agents like her, don't get the wrong idea. I about fell over in paroxysms of terror. I know my blog isn't perfect, and I know the things my subconscious sometimes throws out there behind my back (or behind my cerebral cortex, as the case may be). All I can hope is that any agent stumbling across my blog will realize what I say on here isn't indicative of my finished product.

As always I try my best to thwart my subconscious's need to take over my fingers, but sometimes its work gets onto the page. I'd tie it up and lock it in a closet, but unfortunately, it's the source of some of my best flashes of inspiration. I guess I'll just have to live with its occasional slips and/or games.

What does your subconscious do for/to you?

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3 comments:

Kristen Painter said...

Honestly, life is too short for me to worry over something like my blog. I really don't write the blog to be anything more than entertainment. My books are where the effort goes, you know what I mean?

Deborah Carr (Debs) said...

My subconscious can be a bit of a pain too and if agents do look at my blog (chance would be a fine thing) then they'd no doubt find all sorts of mistakes.

My blog is more of a fun thing though and when I write my novels I do try and edit any mistakes as much as possible.

Travis Erwin said...

I have dyslexic hands as well. post often becomes psot and the teh. They are many more as well.