Things That Annoy Me As a Writer

Welcome back to Musings of an Arthritic Artist! Today I'm going to be talking about the things that annoy me as a writer. 

I have been a writer for about 4-5 years now, so I have found many things that annoy me. To clarify, these are not things that people say or even the way my mind thinks. This is about the main writing platform I use, and how much its spell check annoys me.

Let's get into the post!

King, Alexandria. Musings of an Arthritic Artist. 2021.

I think one of the things that annoys me the most is the spell check for some of the writing programs. As far as writing platforms, the only two I’ve really used are Google Docs and Microsoft Word. 

I use both of those programs to write fiction and academic things, however most of my files are fiction writing. I tend to write a lot of first person present things, and for some reason, Google Docs likes to correct my words.

A lot of fiction writers use and even recommend Google Docs, so why first person present words don’t register in their algorithm is beyond me and can be incredibly annoying. 

When I make up fantasy words, this is fine. It’s not a valid word. However, I absolutely hate when actual words are corrected. Fairly recently I had written the word “assuages” and they wanted to correct it to “assured/assures.” They do not have the same meaning at all. 

Assuage means to "make an unpleasant feeling less intense," while assure means to "tell someone something positively or confidently to dispel any doubts they may have." 

The former is along the lines of the words "alleviate," "relieve," "ease," and "soothe," while the latter is along the lines of "convince," "promise," "persuade," and "guarantee." Explain to me how these words mean the same thing. It also wants to change the word "sparred" into "spared," even though this is a word still in use. 

It always wants to correct my present-tense verbs to past-tense verbs, however "say" is never highlighted. In one sentence, it wants to correct "every one" into "everyone" even though they mean two separate things. 

It wants to change "I tense" to "I am tense," because that makes sense. It also wants to change "nods" to "mods." This sentence is about a character in a fantasy setting nodding. I don't understand what mods have to do with this. 

Also "limp" wants to be changed to "limb," because the sentence, "I limb toward the market" totally makes sense. It also wants to change "coercing" to "forcing". No, Google Docs. Please don't change my vocabulary. 

It also wants to change my sentence from, "They'll scar," to "They'll be scared." I'm sorry, what? Also, it wants to change "sighs" to "signs." I love writing disabled characters, but this character doesn't know sign language, nor are they deaf.

It also wants to change the sentence, "You're a good person who had something terrible happen to them" to "You're a good person who had something terrible happened to them." As far as I know, they're both correct grammatically, but the first one makes more sense. 

It wants to change the sentence, "My leg will never be the same" to "My legs will never be the same," which changes the entire meaning of the sentence. It wants to change, "What was I like?" to "What did I like?" which again changes the meaning of the sentence. 

"We'll duel in my father's arena" wants to be changed to "Will duel in my father's arena." It suggests that "mar" be changed to "mark." It wants to correct "Forget I asked" to "Forget what I asked," which (once again) changes the meaning and tone of the sentence.

In another story, "I'm sorry won't cut it" has the suggestion of "I'm sorry I won't cut it." It wants to change "peplos" to "people." It wants to change "y'all" to "ya."

In a hockey related story I was writing, it wants to change "I'm checked hard into the boards" into "I checked hard into the boards."

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Google Docs needs to do something to fix their algorithm if they want their spell check to be consistent and correct. Upon a look at my personal dictionary, it seems as if the words "hear," "overcame," "killed," "glares," "says," "asks," and "fear" weren't in their algorithm.

I decided to go through my personal dictionary to look for standard words. It had quite a few words that I made up for fantasy projects (Google Docs was perfectly valid in wanting to correct them), but there were a few standard words in there, such as "asks," "says," and "could've."

For some strange reason, Google Docs wants to change "asks" to "asos," which is usually one of two things. It's an acronym for something involving the National Weather Service and a fashion retailer. So, technically, it isn't even a valid word. It wants to correct "says" into "days." However, the most baffling (and annoying) suggestion is could've.

Most spell checkers will want to correct contractions, which I have no problem with. Contractions are very frowned upon (and can get you docked points) in an academic/scholarly setting such as college/university, so many writing platforms will want to correct these. Therefore, I have no problem with how Google Docs wants to correct it, however, it's the way they want to correct it.

As children learn in elementary school, "could have" translates to "could've," "would have" translates to "would've," "could not" translates to "couldn't," and "would not" translates to "wouldn't." There are plenty of contractions but if I tried to list them all, we'd be here all day. The most baffling thing is that Google Docs wants to correct "could've" to "would have."

Excuse me?  If this were a correct suggestion, it should've been "could have," not "would have." This is not a proper translation of a broken down, split up contraction.

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Despite all this, I would still recommend Google Docs for writers. It allows you to be able to edit your work anywhere, even if you're using a public computer at a library or on a tablet or phone, which is one of the many reasons I enjoy using it.

It's the main thing writers use it for. It's the major pro that outweighs the con. You can access and edit your work anywhere. I used to use Microsoft Word for anything, but when you travel a lot, it gets very difficult when you want to write or edit a passage, but you don't have that passage accessible to you. It's easier than having to use a USB drive all the time (though they are still very useful).

That's it for this post! I hope you enjoyed it! 

Until next time, 

Lexi K🖌