This post is by Frank Larnerd
We have all done it: left out words, misspelled expressions, or swapped the order of terms.
But, it’s not your fault.
While you are refilling your coffee cup, or adding paper to the printer, something was altering your work.
Pious scribes in the middle ages were the first to encounter this unholy fiend. Under a malevolent shadow, it would alter their manuscripts and befuddle their words.
No matter how diligent they were, time after time, the monks still found the demon’s hand on their priestly parchments – erasing lines, or adding nonsense.
The monks named the demon “Titivillus.”
Today, Titivillus is still hard at work. You can see signs of his wickedness corrupting social media posts, while his mark has nearly shrouded over the entire twitterverse.
How can we mere mortals combat such an unearthly foe? Is there any hope against such erroneous maledictions?
Some sages might advise banishment spells, circles of protection, or shaking chicken feet, but here are some real steps you can take to help protect yourself from Titivillus.
- Use a text to speech program to read your work – An impassionate computerized voice isn’t the most pleasing way to have your words read, but it won’t fill in missing words, or skip over words that don’t belong. I recommend http://vozme.com/
- Read your work backward – This way you aren’t focusing on the story, but rather the sentences and the errors hiding within them.
- Have a critical friend read over your work. We all have one, you know, that friend who can spot a stain on your shirt from fifty paces. Turn their faultfinding skills to your advantage and see Titivillus flee in terror.
- Give yourself time to get unacquainted with your story – It’s easy to miss errors while the story is fresh in your mind, but if you can put it away for a while; a fresh look might help you reveal problems hiding in your text.
- Use a spelling and grammar checker – Although they don’t catch everything, these programs are the least you can do when proofreading your work.
Watch Titivillus wreak havoc on me at www.franklarnerd.com
Or become my friend and battle him together at www.facebook.com/flarnerd
Keira's Place 
Loved this post Frank. Thanks! I always knew there was a name for the horrid gremlin that creeps in and destroys my writing. Now I have it! ha ha! Seriously, sometimes I’ve gone over it repeatedly, think it’s fine and read it a week later only to find typos. eek! I use the text to voice on my Mac but I will try out the Vozme.
Brilliant and educational. Loved this post!
I much enjoy your linking of the historical with the humorous with writing advice. But I doubt those old monks found it funny when the abbot discovered the errors attributed to them!
I always blamed typos and such on the ghost in the machine, be it a typewriter in bygone days or a laptop today. One frustration: I will post something on my FB author’s page and notice a typo or grammar miscue, and even though Facebook has an edit function, it won’t let me actually correct the problem.
Boy was I happy to hear that something, some force outside my control was messing up my posts, etc. I now feel guilt free -NOT. Seriously, great post, and thanks for listing potential solutions. It’s appreciated. Quick question-does bug spray have any effect on this nasty villain?
Always, always run a search and replace for “Public” that is missing the “L” is one of my ironclad rules.
So funny. I’ve done that.
Frank, this is so funny. I knew it. Most of the time my Word Demon’s name is Droid. Thank you for the information and suggestions. My next blog is about Tools of the Trade, so it falls hand in hand with this one. Cher’ley
Great post. Even after having my book professionally proofread there were still typos. Grrr. You can also download your work to your Kindle (and I assume other e-readers) and have it read aloud to you.
I have a grammar demon, also. Loved the post!
Clever post!
Frank, yes, sometimes I go back to edit and find mistakes I can’t believvve I made. What?? I left out a word. No quotation marks? What happened to that paragraph I added? No way – I typed hole instead of whole?? Unbelievable. Yikes, I’m missing an entire chapter! Oh, for Pete’s sake, this dialogue is pure crap. Did I really think it was wonderful two days ago? Yes, Frank, needed this today. It’s more fun when others have the same problem. Love it.
Great post, Frank. Sorry I’m getting to it so late. I love the idea that something will help me avoid those little nasties but I really do know that if I had learned to type properly in the first place, and secondly if I didn’t have a few slightly lazy fingers my work might be spotless – and would hsow no transpositions of letters or missing spaces/ spaces in the wrong place etc. But what would Titivillus think about that? (Love your Med Monk picture!)