I’m a spelling nerd who also really loves Canada, so it’s no wonder I think Canadian spelling is so cool. It’s not British, it’s not American. It’s a mixture of both, with seemingly arbitrary rules. We sometimes spell travelling as traveling. Is it analyse or analyze? It’s both! It’s such a wonderful representation of what Canada itself is like. We’re not British or American, but we take influences of both and come up with something uniquely our own.

How does this relate to Microsoft Word? Well, I have a theory. For a long time I’ve seen Canadians spelling our beloved ‘-our’ words – words like colour, flavour and favourite -without that all-important ‘u,’ or centre as center. I’ve even seen it on corporate signage, things you’d expect to be run past a fussy copyeditor like me before being printed.

Microsoft Word is the most common word processing program we use. Mac usage is on the rise, but Pages doesn’t even come close. Many people went through large parts of school using Word to write papers and create projects. How many of them changed the default dictionary to Canadian English? Probably not many – American English is just so close. However, use the word favourite, and you’ll get that dreaded red squiggly underline. You’ll think you’ve spelled the word wrong, and let Word auto-correct it to favorite. Canadian spelling dies a little more. Stand up, Canadians! Don’t rely on your American spell-checker! Fight for your right to use words like cheque, colour and kilometre! Your very Canadianness hinges upon it!

Okay, okay, so I got a little carried away at the end there, but I really do think Word – and built-in spell-checker programs – are stripping away the things that make Canadian spelling so interesting. Don’t let it happen!

Why “should of” and “could of” are incorrect

“Should of” and “could of”, if you break them out into their two separate words, don’t actually make any sense together. You can say “a pint of beer” or “three hours of sleep”, but “should of studied” doesn’t fit.

In this case, people say “should of” and “could of” because of the contraction that’s created from the word “have.” Really, it’s “should’ve” and “could’ve” – in other words, “should have” and “could have.” This contraction sounds very similar to “of” when spoken aloud, but “of” in this case is meaningless and incorrect.

Hope that helps! Personally, the words “should” and “could” are starting to look very strange to me after writing this post, so I’m done!

This is author Rafe Bartholomew, giving a promo in Tagalog for his book Pacific Rims.

From his website:

. . . no people in the world love [basketball] like Filipinos. I spent three years following the Philippine game, studying its roots, recording the stories of its former and current greats, and sweating my way through daily pick-up battles. The nation’s passion was sometimes irrational, often impressive and always inspiring.

For the record, it’s true. Filipinos love only one thing more than karaoke, and that’s basketball.

I wanted to share this video because of how it relates to my last post about Filipino writers. Yes, it’s true that Bartholomew isn’t Filipino himself, but his book is about something that is, to me, so quintessentially Filipino. He also seems to really like the Philippines, which is admittedly something novel to me. You always hear people say how much they love Tokyo or Bali or Seoul, but when was the last time someone expressed their lifelong dream to visit Manila? I also love that he’s speaking Tagalog in the video. Though I’m not a native speaker myself, his accent and pronunciation sound very good!

So, while this is not technically a book by a Filipino writer, I think it’s a book that definitely sheds some light on an aspect of Filipino culture. I think I will keep an eye out for this book; it sounds interesting!

Here’s the difference between “conscious” and “conscience”

• Conscious means to be awake, to be aware, or to have knowledge of something.
• Conscience is the little voice inside you that tells you stealing your best friend’s car and driving it into a lake is wrong.

So, this means the following phrases are incorrect:

• Socially conscience
• Unconscience
• Listen to your conscious

How to tell the difference between “conscious” and “conscience”

Because these words sound so similar, it’s easy to get them confused. However, the key to telling them apart is in the second ‘n’ in conscience. Say it aloud if you need to (if you’re in public, you can say it under your breath – it’s okay!). If you need to talk about how to tell the difference between right and wrong, watch for that second ‘n.’ Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to come up with an easy mnemonic device for this one, but after a while it should become second nature!

• Across the pond
• Pout – to describe lips in general, not an actual pout
• Wow factor
• Culture vulture

Here are words and phrases that bug me because they’re actually incorrect:

• All intensive purposes (should be “intents and purposes”)
• “Incidences” to mean “incidents” (“incidence” is actually a technical word which is not pluralized)
• “Awe” as an alternate spelling of “aw” (I mean, it’s an entirely different word!).
• “Comprised of”, but I’ve talked about that one before.
• “Should of”, “would of”, etc.
• “Penultimate” to mean “the most ultimate” (it actually means “next to last” – very far from the way it’s commonly used, which is a shame because it’s a great word).
• “Reoccuring”

My mother can’t stand when people say “absolutely” as a synonym for “yes.”

What phrases drive you up the wall?

I don’t want to speak for Teri, but she and I have talked in the past about including “Filipinoness” in our fiction. For myself, it’s been difficult and I could never pinpoint exactly why until I read the Syjuco interview.

He talks about writing “Filipinoness” for a Western audience without feeling the need to explain it. It really resonated with me. How many books have we read by Chinese, Indian, Mexican authors that included names of food we didn’t need to look up, or cultural references we already knew? Filipino society is fairly Westernized already, and when people emigrate from the Philippines, they tend to “blend in” quite easily. As a result, many Filipino cultural touchstones remain hidden from popular view. I mean, when was the last time you went to a Filipino restaurant? And if you’ve ever been to one, where there any non-Filipinos in there? In my experience, Filipino culture happens behind the scenes, with family and family-like friends. I’ve always wondered why Filipinos are always so thrilled to meet other Filipinos – even second and third generation ones – and now I think I understand why.

I was born and raised in Canada and of two very different cultural backgrounds (three, actually, if you count Canada). As a result, I know bits of both but am no expert in either. However, I do know that the Philippines is much more complicated than it appears on the surface. I think more people should write about it and explore it without being modest or feeling unable – myself included!

Anyway, the point is that this was a great interview (salamat, Teri!) and it’s really made me motivated to bring out more “Filipinoness” in my writing while resisting the urge to explain everything.

Also, if anyone knows of any good Filipino writers, let me know!

For those of you who don’t want to read all of it (though I think you should! It’s very well-written), here are the main points I took away from it:

• Take the time to create a history for your story or novel. Even if you don’t write fantasy, readers need to feel drawn in and surrounded by the world you’re creating.
• Don’t overexplain everything. It might feel weird, but keep some things mysterious or hinted at and let the reader keep coming back to find out more.
• Write from your passion – themes and thoughts you keep returning to personally are bound to translate in a complex and evolving way in your writing.
• Trust that your readers want to participate in and explore your work. By leaving certain things open to interpretation, you are making readers partners in the creative process.
• Check your facts!
• When writing, don’t resist letting the story or characters unfold in a different way than you’d intended.

• I’ve finished one new story (meaning it’s gone through my two beta readers) and am close to finishing a second. Unsurprisingly, it’s a section of dialogue that’s giving me trouble here. Dialogue has always been my weak point.
• I submitted an earlier story to a magazine, emboldened by dinner with a friend and a couple of glasses of wine. I hope that’s not considered unprofessional to admit – I wasn’t drunk, I was emboldened. My submission letter had no typos whatsoever and I didn’t confess my love for the person on the other end.
• I’ve finished reading the book I wrote about a couple of posts ago. I bought a book about Richard I, but I don’t feel like reading it – I read a book about Mary I last month and I feel kind of burnt out on historical biographies, even though I love them so much. I’m craving something Victorian. Do you get book cravings? If so, for what?
• Last weekend, I discovered that Margaret Atwood and Alistair MacLeod, two of my favourite writers, were doing a reading a short walk from where I live. The catch was, the reading ended 30 minutes from when I’d read about it. Yes, I did shake my fist at the heavens.
• This one might not be a shock to anyone, but I have a new WordPress theme. I really loved my old one, Bueno, but something broke when upgrading to the new version of WordPress and it started displaying my main index page as my blog page. Anyway, I tried all morning to fix it before I gave up and found a new theme. It’s not as perfect as Bueno was, but I do like it!

I hope your past 13 days have been productive and/or exciting!

It was something I had been turning over in my mind for several months, but getting stranded in Europe by volcanic ash and then a cross-country move prevented me from acting on it. After that, it was fear.

Yes, even though the idea had been growing in my mind and generating sparkles and rainbows and all kinds of other good things signifying its wonderfulness, I was afraid to actually do it.

Then, I got a haircut.

It was the first time I’d done so since I moved here, so the stylist and I had the standard getting-to-know-you conversation. She asked me what I did for a living. I told her,

“I’m a freelance writer and editor.”

Then, she said,

“Oh. So what do you do, exactly?”

After I spent five minutes explaining what I did, I realized that it was confusing. How can I expect to be awesome at something I can’t even succinctly explain?

That hair appointment made me realize, more than ever, that I had to focus. I had to specialize. I had to take my favourite parts of my business – the ones I was the best at – and do nothing else. Easily managed job description = easily managed job.

Then, a randomly-found blog post gave me validation.

I don’t even remember how I found it, but the other day I stumbled upon a blog post called Copycats & lessons we can learn. I had it open in my browser for several hours and I read it a couple of times. The video, a TED lecture about the lack of copyright in the fashion industry, was interesting, but what I really liked was the blogger’s commentary. This part, in particular, stuck with me:

What does this mean to you? Artists, illustrators, and designers can now freely do what they please and practice what they do best. They can now search and target their specific audience instead of trying hard to fit into a particular mold. And with it comes the work: your ability to challenge, innovate and make new things. And if you have your own business, you have to keep things fresh for your audience.

Now, I’m not saying being a generalist is a bad thing. In fact, it can be the perfect thing depending on your career goals and personality. But for me, focusing my freelancing business on three key areas was the best thing for me and I’m happy I finally did it!

Now, I long ago realized I’m awful at reviewing books. When I read, I simply cannot analyze the book at the same time; unless it’s a horrible book, but who wants to write nothing but bad reviews? So it’s kind of thrilling to have a copy of a book like this with no obligation to review it. It feels so very behind-the-scenes. And I’m pleased to report that uncorrected proofs are still quite “correct” – I’ve only found two small errors in 85 pages so far.

Okay, so I said I’m not a book reviewer, but I do have to say that I’m enjoying this book very much so far. My absolute favourite kind of book or story is one that incorporates fantastical or mythological elements into everyday scenarios without it being A Huge Thing. It’s something I’m drawn to in my own writing and so it’s especially exciting when I read something that does it as wonderfully as The Waterproof Bible does. My uncorrected proof has a tentative release date of February 2010, so go out and buy it!