Weeding and Typing

Weeding today reminded me of typos, improper grammar and punctuation and general issues found in manuscripts.

I weed an area and move on. Turning around, I discover…more weeds, where I’d already weeded. The first time was considered, you know, an aberration. Surely the august self had merely overlooked one sector of weeds. But after the second and third times, my suspicions grew. With the fourth time, I concluded, I’m not missing the weeds: they’re growing behind my back.

That had to be the answer.

And while I chortled at my imagination and the secret plotting I now discerned among the weeds — “OMG, he knows,” — I reflected on how much this is like editing. You comb and comb for the mistakes. Satisfied that you found and corrected all the errors, you move on.

But at another time, maybe the same day, maybe a day a week from now or later, you open the doc or pick up the manuscript, and there is another error. 

They’re just like weeds. They seem to propagate on their own.