Writing goofs and choosing the right word.

Writing has its own special brand of troubles. Writers make all kinds of mistakes and typically, we call them typos, but sometimes they are just writing the wrong word. In speech, an example of the latter would be the famous spoonerisms.

I'm reading a book by a top-of-the-line best selling author and I found this typo: "had't." It happens, even to the best of writers. My trusted FIRST READERS know that I'm relatively consistent in leaving out "the" and "of" and a few other similar words. 

What happens when we speak or write is we just get ahead of ourselves and the errors slip out.

One of my favorite Mark Twain quotes kind of covers this mistake:

The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.

My favorite personal writing goof and, believe me, I've had many, is this one from my latest book, Brutal Enemy. Fortunately, I found the mistake during the first edit, and when I spotted it, I really did laugh out loud.

The wrong word:  . . . she shrieked as he dug his fingers into her side and tinkled.
The correct word: . . . she shrieked as he dug his fingers into her side and tickled.

The question is: was this a typo? Or just a brain fart where I heard tickled but wrote tinkled? I think the second because the c and the n have two other keys between them. Ha! Did you just look at your keyboard?

What are some of your favorites? Make a comment to this post. Come on, share with us. We won't laugh. 

Well, actually we will. But so will you.

Thanks for stopping by today.