Calling all readers…I need your help unmasking those treacherous words that hold your writing captive!
Is there a word that you always have to check to make sure you’re using it properly? Do you freeze in terror as you glimpse it in your mind’s eye? Does it laugh at you while stealing away your confidence as a writer?
Fear not, my friends. We will tame those rogue words together, and bring them to justice!
No, not him…we want the real bad guys!
Send me your challenging words, and I will creatively describe how to master them in some fun posts for the upcoming A to Z Challenge in April. Yes, I have decided to participate in the challenge this year. I do not fear to take it on! (However, I do fear having to write 26 posts all in one month – so I am preparing for the fight now.) I want to capture as many tricky words as I can from my readers. So please post your word below, or feel free to send me a comment with your request. Whether it’s remembering how to spell a word, or when to use one of two similar words, or where to place an apostrophe, I want to hear about your worst nightmare word. And I will do my best to give you a bounty of laughs when I write about it.
Yours in pursuit,
Sue
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For those of you who have done the A to Z challenge before, any survival tips would be greatly appreciated! 🙂
(Image from Disney’s Tangled)
Doorway Between Worlds 
I often misspell weird and caffeine. (Of course, when I typed this comment, I spelled them right!) But I’m always tempted to reverse the e and the i. I’m sure there are plenty more, but I can’t think of them right now. Fun idea!
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Ah yes, the dreaded “i before e except after…well…who knows?” Thanks for capturing that one for me, Carrie! Glad you like the idea.
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I always get led and lead wrong, and I get all mixed up with envelope and apologies as far as the number of ‘p’s.
This is a great idea for A to Z. I did it last year but with no advance planning and oh my was it a killer to write a post a day without a clue of what I was going to cover! Preparation is definitely key!
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Yes, I wanted to avoid adding too many “p”s to the word panic when I get to April. 😉 Thanks for sending those words my way!
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Some of the words which I can recall at this moment are
envelope and envelop
‘e’ and ‘a’ bothers me in endeavour.
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Thanks, naturelover! I will add these words to my wanted list. 🙂
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good idea and lots of determination! I will probably find more words, but the few that came to mind, reading your post, were: envelope and address (that could be the French background) and braid (hairstyle). As I encountered more in my daily writings, will send them your way!
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Thanks, Nicole! Feel free to keep them coming as you find more. 🙂
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The word “definitely” definitely pisses me off. I always want to spell it “definately”. I don’t know why. You see in the first sentence, I spelled it correctly twice? I had to retype BOTH times from the wrong spelling to the correct spelling.
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Thank you, Pat – yes, that one is supremely irritating! I am looking forward to giving this one its comeuppance in future. 🙂
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I always get mixed up on “separate” and “definitely”. I also have to look up the past tense of lay/lie almost every time I use it. Great idea for a post!
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Thanks for stopping by and commenting, Nicole! Glad you liked the A to Z post idea. And thanks for the great words – I will be sure to include them. I have troubles with lay/lie, too. 🙂
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The apostrophe is one of my greatest writing struggle. I get confused over using it before an ‘s’ or after. Another struggle is between “feminity” and “femininity”. I actually just realized by typing right now that “feminity” which I believed to be right up until no is the wrong one 😀 .
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Oh, I hate it when that happens. My sympathies! There are a lot of words out there that clearly have way too many syllables to be practical. 🙂 Thanks for sharing your word struggles, Kaygy. I will be sure to include them in my A to Z series!
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At this moment the word which comes in my mind is ‘favorite’ and ‘favourite’ 😉 Confusing 🙂
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Oh, that’s a great one, Nimmi! Thanks for sharing it. The good news is that they are both right. 🙂 Those in the U.S. prefer to drop the “u” and go with “favorite,” while Canadians (like me) and the British prefer “favourite.” There’s a whole group of these, like honor and honour, color and colour. I will be sure to write about them in my future posts. 🙂
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Yes, there are 😀 Anyway’s Thanks 😉
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You’re welcome, Nimmi! Thank you for reading. 🙂
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Loved it 🙂
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That’s great to hear. 🙂
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Sue, if you of all people cannot help me with the wretched words PAST and PASSED, then I say we should just vote it right out of our dictionaries. Deal?
Love, love, love the idea. April will be a golden month for me. May be more of a headache for you sadly.
😛
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I have an admittedly ambitious plan to get all of my writing done before April, so that I can spend the whole month enjoying other bloggers’ posts. But as you have just reminded me, Shelley, time is passing, so I’d better get moving. 😉 Thank you for sharing your word headaches with me – since, alas, I cannot vote them out of the dictionaries, I will simply have to subdue them!
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Great idea, Sue! I get tangled up with “jealous” and “envious”–trying to keep straight the distinction between them. I know there is one….isn’t there??
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Good question! (This is what a professor says when she doesn’t know the answer off the top of her head.) I will ponder that one…luckily I will have some time to think about it before posting. Thanks for sending this conundrum my way! 🙂
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Ooooo I am SO looking forward to this series. I’d like to request “Affect” and “Effect”, please 🙂
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Glad to hear I’ve picked the right topic for the series, Olivia! “Affect” and “effect” it is. Your wish is my command. 🙂
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How about further/farther? The best way to survive the Challenge is to write as many posts ahead of time as possible. That’s how I did it last year. 🙂
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Thanks for adding to my list of words, Lori! That’s a great pick. And thanks also for the advice – after Christmas, I am going to be doing some serious prep work for A to Z. I want to be able to spend a lot of time reading other people’s blogs rather than worrying about managing my own!
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Hiya Sue, the word that bugs me is jewellery vs jewellry. I always forget kindergarden vs kindergarten. And killjoy vs killijoy. Thank goodness for spell check and Sue 😉
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Hi Jaso, thank you for this excellent bundle of J and K words that I can tackle in April! I can think of no greater honour than being your spell check. 😉
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Occasionally. I can never remember how many of the letters are doubles, and which ones. Occassionnally?
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That’s brilliant, everwalker. Yes, it would be so much easier if they were all doubles! Thanks for the word. 🙂
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“Onto” or “on to”! It drives me bonkers.
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Yes! Thank you for reminding me of that painful construction. 😉 I am adding it right now!
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