Details, details

I'm in the midst of reviewing the copyedited manuscript of On the Road to Mr. Mineo's.

This part of the book creation process can be frustrating but eye-opening.

I'm always surprised at the mistakes I make consistently and the things I learn.

For instance, every time I used the following, I wrote them as two words instead of one:

barbershop
livelong
flowerpots (but flower boxes is two words)
shirttail
cornfields
hayloft
toolbox

I always write lawn mower as one word instead of two.

I forget that the following are hyphenated:

gol-dern (to prevent confusion for kids who don't know the term and might think it should be "golden" ??)
barn-owl (although a copyeditor missed it in one spot, where I had two words. HA!)
chicken-wire
run-down

I gave up on trying to use the expression "pure T". Copyeditor thought I meant "purty."

Those guys don't miss a thing.

On p 2 I wrote "empty doghouse in the yard"
On p 73 I wrote "empty doghouse in the front yard"

On p 2 I wrote "stamped her foot"
On p 42 I wrote "stomped her foot"

I wrote "screened door."
Was changed to "screen door. " (hmmm)

On p 17 I wrote "dern fool bird"
On p 118 I wrote "dang fool bird"

I had written: "greasy car parts and paint cans"
Was changed to "Paint cans and greasy car parts" since the paint cans aren't greasy.

And then, there is the constant inner battle between "diddly squat" and "doodly squat."

Writing is such hard work.