Is it a form of fatigue or blindness? Have you ever wondered why so often we fail to see the most blatant mistakes when proof reading our own work? Is it a form of fatigue or blindness? This was the question that I posed to my husband over dinner last night. Is it fatigue born from having looked at the same piece literally hundreds of times, or is it blindness because our eyes and brains know what we intended to type and therefore assume it is what is on the paper without really looking?
This question arose last night as I was reviewing the promotional pieces I am working on for two upcoming literary festivals. After not seeing any errors on my “final” review I (very smartly it seems) sent it to our committee members to have fresh eyes look at it. Wouldn’t you know it, the biggest error was on my husband’s listing as a sponsor – you would think I would check that, wouldn’t you? Well, I thought I had but my eyes and brain were either too fatigued or too blind to see the error. And apparently, this is a thing. When I posed the fatigue vs blindness question to Rob he searched it on the internet and apparently other people have actually researched this topic. (I’ll include a link to one of the articles he sent me later).
But the good news is Fatigue and/or Blindness be darned we finished the proof read and the posters for The Walker Percy Weekend have been ordered and work is well underway on the brochures for both that event and The West Feliciana Children’s Book Festival.
Speaking of the children’s book festival be sure and gather your kiddos, or borrow some, or come by yourself, but whatever you do, be sure to join us in Parker Park on Saturday May 5 when we will once again have authors, illustrators, story tellers, facepainting, and a town wide sidewalk chalk art contest. This year will also add a storytime that teaches kids Yoga and Meditation, a visit from Alycat of the Alycat series of children’s books, a book drive with a fabulous prize to help the Women’s Service League replenish the Little Free Library at the Sports Park, and awesome activities from several other community groups (more info to come later).
So, here we go into a 45 day span with lots of literary activities in our town for both kids and adults and a lot more proof reading for me – at which I apparently do not excel. But luckily I work with a group that is so talented in so many ways not the least of which is catching my mistakes before I print them on 1000 brochures. (Just a thought, maybe I should have them proof read my blogs but I think my run on sentences, commas, and stream of consciousness writing style might have them running away and I really need them , so I better not ask.)
Here’s that article Rob found: “Why it’s so hard to catch your own typos” https://www.wired.com/2014/08/wuwt-typos/
Save the dates:
The Second Annual West Feliciana Children’s Book Festival is Saturday May 5, 2018
And The Fifth Annual Walker Percy Weekend is the weekend of June 1-3, 2018