Curse you Auto-Correct!

Writing is hard enough, so why make it any harder than is has to be? There are several things you can do to lighten your work load and smooth out the process. Below are a few of the things I’ve learned to do along the way. Not all of it will be applicable for all situations, but as usual I’d recommend looking it over and making your own decision on how much to emulate.

Auto-Correct, Auto-Fill, etc. TURN IT OFF.

This is rather straight forward. If you’re software has this feature, turn it off. Yes, these features have given the internet vast lists of hilarious misunderstandings caused by the wrong word being used, but that is an unnecessary annoyance when you are trying to write. On top of hurting your work flow, since you have to stop and FIX the error the software made, it may go by unnoticed until much later. A description involving some monster with tentacles attacking people can take a whole different direction if it’s spontaneously changed into testicles. Yes it has happened. To me. Go ahead and laugh, I did. Moving along…

Beyond changing the word to something quirky or humorous, it could cause major headaches later. One of the issues I have run into before is the word “Stares” being transformed magically into “Stairs.” It seems like an easy fix, but sometimes the problem with these homonyms is that sometimes the eye glances over them during editing. The meaning is there and grasped on some leave of the reader, but the error doesn’t always get caught. So save yourself some headaches, and just turn the thing off.

Spell check, Grammar check: TURN OFF

Same advice as above, but for different reasons. Firstly, if you are doing some sort of fantasy fiction, get ready to be drowned in a proverbial sea of red and green squiggly lines. Another problem is the software isn’t right all the time. There are a fair number of words and names that the programs simply don’t recognize. Remember that it’s just an aid and only provides SUGGESTIONS on things to fix. You are the writer, you are the editor, YOU know what you want; make it so.

The biggest issue with these options? Why do I have so much disdain for the squiggly lines during the writing process? Simply put: they slow you down. If you get into the groove of writing. If you have managed to root yourself in the world you are creating. If you have the winds of progress filling your sails, why would you want anything forcing you back into the real world? These seemingly innocuous little multi-colored squiggly lines are disturbing flags of potential errors. Most of us have a problem with ignoring them and moving on, I know I do. They are like that by design. BUT, they are an EDITING tool. They have their time and place, but not during writing. Each time you are uprooted from your work in order to fix a “possible” problem flagged by the squiggles, you risk losing whatever thought or plan you just had in your mind. The potential time lost is just not worth it. So, turn it off and wait for your editing phases to use this particular toolset.

--Kirk