Reason but not an excuse

I am a writer with Dyslexia. Dyslexia makes parts of writing a challenge where as others think that some of the mistakes are ‘dumb’ or ‘simple’ that should have been spotted and fixed on the first edit.

I will first admit this-Dyslexia is not an excuse, but a reason why things tend to be a bit difficult. If it was an excuse, then it would be like not trying to do the best I could.

Dyslexia 1st off, is the brain working and seeing things that are different than others see it. Some letters like b, d, g, q, p are all confusing and easily mixed up when writing and reading, not to mentions s, and E and 3 can be turned around to resemble the other.

Thank goodness for spell checker, it tends to catch many of the misspellings. Words like pass and bass are both spelled right, but might have gotten typed wrong; like writing directions saying “go by the over pass” gets written “go by the over bass” and when it is proofed by a dyslexic, it looks fine.

It really helps having capitol letters on keyboards so if I watch my fingers, it might cut down on some of the errors.

Another thing that makes writing a bit more difficult is punctuation and grammar. I confess these are two of my greatest problems in my works.

Some of the phrases and when to use ‘are’ and ‘is’ “was” and “were”, and others tends to be confusing. Many times I get emails pointing out these flubs so I can fix it and make the story better.

I have a good handle on quotation marks and such, but the smaller the mark the more confusing it becomes. Where does the comma go? Here or there? Is it proper to put a dash there?

Thank goodness for people willing to help edit.

Somewhere in the brain it gets turned around and flipped until it doesn't make sense. This is when others see ‘simple’ mistakes, but it is not simple when you do not understand it.

I have tried with all my might to get these concepts down, studying until my brain hurt and it was worse than ever. Please do not think I am lazy because I do not understand this stuff, I have tried, and am still trying.

Dyslexia is not an easy thing to live with because many things are different than they should be in our heads. I like to say that I don’t think in straight lines like other people. Sometimes I wonder will I ever go anywhere with my writing with the hitch in my brain, but then I am just determined to work harder and take the help from others, fix what I can and keep trying.

This is how I don’t allow my problem to become an excuse. I won’t let it stop me from dreaming and trying, but I do have a reason why I don’t ‘get’ things.

Please remember that there are no two dyslexics exactly the same. Some might actually understand grammar, but have a problem with something else.

When I speak of problems, I am just talking about writing in this piece. There are many other symptoms that don’t have anything to do with writing, but that is for another time.