Doesn’t it just irk you that when you talk to people you like and don’t know you very well that you say all the wrong things and end up looking like an idiot? Why do we care so much about what others think anyways? What we say isn’t going to change their minds for the better if they already think we are idiots. There is a lot to be said for first impressions. Despite how much we try to say otherwise it is hard to change what people think when they meet you for the first time. Think about it if you like someone you are more likely to forgive their blundering words and actions, aren’t you? If you initially dislike them you just use their blunders as an excuse to dislike them more.
Back to my original thoughts on saying the wrong things, this should not happen to authors. We are after all wordsmiths and expected to have speaking under control right? But alas we are only human and once you start down the path of trying to be impressive your tongue will slip out and make you fall hard and fast no matter who you are. Plus with texting and emails our fingers can get in on the act of making us look like idiots too. Plus have you noticed the more you try to fix what you said the worse it gets? It’s like your brain just starts shooting out whatever it can grab onto and your tongue and fingers are willing venues to send more blunders on their way to ruin your image.
I think the best way to combat this is to learn to just shut up. If you find you send something stupid just let it go. Close your mouth, shut off your phone or computer and get away fast before your brain can betray you and send more idiotic fuel to your mouth and fingers and embarrass you further. No one seems to do this however. I think the reason is a little voice in our head tries to convince us that we weren’t really that stupid and we can recover. We should listen that our original blunder probably wasn’t that bad and if we’d just shut up then we’d leave the other person wondering if they heard what we said right or understood what we wrote. We could just blissfully think all was well and go peacefully on with life but no, instead we continue to try to fix small blunders with bigger holes in which to bury our good image.
I think authors have more ammo stored in their heads for just such occasions when we screw up and say the wrong thing. Yes indeed, our brains start down the path of fixing and now have more words and stories to spew forth and we dig bigger holes than the regular non writer people. See, writers can even write entire blogs trying to make up for idiotic things we’ve said in hopes to convince those who were unfortunate enough to hear our mistaken words to forgive us. Perhaps if we make them laugh they will forget about things spoken in haste earlier.
Shutting up now and walking away while I’m ahead on this.
