Clearly I'm Mistaken

Today's post is a short one, but one that should pay off over and over again. It's about mistakes. We all make them, especially typos. Oh, the typos!

One of the most difficult disciplines for a writer to master is to turn off the internal editor until a draft is written. If we start to edit before we finish writing, it makes the whole process last so much longer. Why, oh why, then, do we leave that spell check on while we write? It's a constant reminder that we have made a mistake.

But so what?

Of course I make mistakes. If I'm going to wait to until a draft is done before I go back and fix it up, however, then why would I want to stop my creative flow to fix the typos while I am writing. I think this constant fixing of typos really breaks the creative flow. For the next week, I challenge you to turn off your spelling and grammar check while you are writing. Or you could use a basic text editor such as Notepad or Textpad. See if it makes a difference in your ability to get ideas on the page.