Thursday, February 26, 2009

The morning after...

a typo is very bad...
It's a very bad feeling. A combination of feelings actually, extreme grief, denial, anger, damn-you, how-could-I, I-am-no-good, this-ain't-the- end-of-the-world, or-maybe-it is, etcetera. The world's suddenly not a pretty place anymore, everything ceases to matter and all you are left with is a crazy sick feeling.
Needless to say, I do everything to avoid a copy error – check the ad or any copy based deliverable until my eyes hurt, until the account executive snatches it away from me, until the art director threatens me with his I've-had-enough look, or until I decide to not care enough about my job. Most often, none of these happen, and I go on checking every word, like a maniac.

Yet, there's no sure-fire way to avoid a typographical error. Just when you think you are absolutely certain about the headline, the subhead, the bodycopy... you have screwed up the address, or the baseline in the logo. And likewise.
I remember every major copy mistake I've ever made. When I say major, I mean, a mistake that cost my agency a lot of money/cost my client a lot of money/cost my agency the client/almost cost me my job.

It's a weired feeling that refuses to go, nothing helps, not even hours of retail therapy, not even a comforting never-mind-that-sweety mail from a friend, or a it's-okay-let's-learn-from-mistakes mail from the boss. Only thing that gets that horrid feeling out, is the next piece of copy that you write, the perfect copy. The typo free copy.

And all will be well again.

7 comments:

  1. I used to do that with my mails and writing, almost staring over them, half loathing, half admiring, fine tuning etc..


    now its like, wtf, who cares anyways. Guess you cant do the same since your content brings in direct dollar / rupee revenues..


    why hasnt the unknown indian outsourcing worker commented yet?

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  2. see i made a typographical error which i saw only after publishing

    almost staring *over* = almost staring at

    did anyone mind? NO.

    See!

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  3. hmmm yupe true, so when i get very powerful, i will make sure i don't have to copy check.

    ooh unknown Indian outsourcing worker, hasn't read it yet i guess.

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  4. i do stuff that nobody reads, so i dont have this problem

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  5. and there was a typo in this post as well...so chill :)

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  6. Hi Ritika,
    Came thru Somak's gtalk status.
    Greetings and all :).
    Yes, typos end up making one feel pretty stupid in offical cases. However, I hate it when someone corrrects his or her typos while chatting online. Sort of insults your ability to deduce.

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  7. Dopa, Oh that was to get into the mood.. heee :D

    Prashant, yupe that's right, especially when you are judged totally by it.

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