Something I’ve learned while on my self-publishing journey is how many words are actually not words (or they aren’t accepted everywhere as words). It feels weird to think that the ways I’ve spelled a word is wrong, or I guess just not known by some people. I’ve only started to make some of the changes now in my writing, but it’s kind of hard.
For example, alright vs. all right. Even now there is a little red line under “alright”, claiming it is wrong. And I guess technically it’s just “all right” blended together, and is getting use more often now. I’ve always used it; not once has it occurred to me that I should be spelling out “all right” rather than “alright”. But now that I’m aware of the difference, when I read a book and see the words I take notice. I make mental notes of how many books have used each version (with pretty much all that I can remember they use “all right”). And am currently in the process of changing it in my books. (Check out this page for more info, Grammar Girl: “All Right” vs. “Alright”).
Another example (that isn’t about what’s wrong but what’s right) is Okay vs. OK. I always thought you would have to write it out as “okay”. Apparently it’s okay to write OK though. Really though, doesn’t “okay” just look nicer? I’ve noticed in traditionally published books they tend to write “okay”, but some self-published authors write “OK”.
Last example, grey vs. gray. Every time I go to write down that stupid word I always think “Which am I supposed to use again? Which did I use before?” And I end up searching through old documents to find out. It seems that for the most part both are correct, it just depends where you live. ”Gray” seems more common in the US, while “grey” is more used in the UK and Canada. (Here’s an short article on it).
And don’t forget to check out my latest book Shimmering!
Ember Reed is a shape-shifter that can’t Shift, earning her the nickname the “sucky spook” at the Sagefall Rec Center. But lately she’s been developing a new ability that is unheard of for her kind and the people she trusts most are telling her it’s wrong. Not only that, spooks are going missing and Ember finds that her and her friends may be next to disappear.
I have a bit of this issue as well. Being Canadian, I write colour and favour and neighbourhood… even the title of my book is Canadian/UK spelling and I expect at some point I may be asked to change it, as well as the abovementioned examples. It will hurt, but I probably will. Either way, I wouldn’t trust your spellcheck to always tell you what’s right. Google Docs recently asked me if I wanted to change ‘a lot’ to ‘alot.’ *facepalm* ‘Alot’ is never correct. Never ever ever.
Lol same! I can’t believe it would ask you to change a lot.