Writing Insecurities Series: Lack of Spelling Skills

I think it's safe to say that all writers have some insecurities when it come to their craft or their stories.

 I'm going to start with something that non-writers think is a major obstacle: spelling. (BTW I had to Google obstacle to spell it.)

A little background information about me. I'm hard of hearing. I hear most voice sounds and low tones, but can't hear things like bells, whistles, birds singing. the S's sound and all the silent sounds related to it (ch, sh, st, sc for ex.)  Not hearing these sounds and having a hearing loss made the Friday's spelling test a pain in the butt for me and my mama. God Bless her for she helped me study for the test ALL WEEK LONG (May God bless her for her whole life just for that)  Spelling was study every week from the beginning first grade to (for me) Eleventh grade. I wanted to kill teacher for the Hard of Hearing Class when she told me  I had to still take spelling in the ninth grade.

I'm not kidding.

First day of ninth grade and she's my new teacher for my hard of hearing class. I blew up in her face, and screamed at her. I was told I wouldn't have to worry about "spelling tests" once I reached high school. It's not like me to get that angry, in fact it embarrassed me to no end once it's was over. (I rarely get mad, but crying another story)

(Why until Eleventh grade? I went to "regular" English class in Eleventh grade. Let's just say I was glad to leave that teacher behind. A post for another day)

Needless to say I'm insecure about my ability to spell well.  

Since I have dealt with my lack of spelling skills my whole life I have figured out ways around it, like googling the word or a phase that included the word. For Ex: I googled Major Obstacles for the word above. I don't see my lack of spelling skill as major obstacle for my writing.  But as long as I wanted to be a writer, (age 13)  other people have seen it that way and were not afraid to share their thoughts with me.  It's even showed up on my career exam in high school. Yes, I wrote on that thing I wanted to be a writer! 

I had goggling instead of googling in that paragraph. Anyone see a turkey I can consult about my spelling?

My thoughts have always been there's more to creating a story then spelling. That said; I'm afraid that since I'm hard of hearing I'm going to put wrong word down on paper. Sometimes I try to sound out word it's sound like the word I want to use. For example this Sunday or Monday one of the founder of a writers' group on twitter called #Turtlewriters asked the question

Are you a planner, a pantser or something in between?

If you would like to see this tweet feed click here.

 I answered and the autocorrect on my smart phone changed the word pantser to panther. I didn't noticed when I posted my tweet.  This started a bunch of silly tweets between me and another writer about panthers and autocorrect. I make THE MISTAKE. I wanted to say that I wanted to strangle autocorrect sometimes but instead I type straggle. I thought I had spelled the right word, I couldn't blame autocorrect this time.

But I had others in good humor point it out to me. I ended up laughing and joking about the mistake. All this made me happy that I found this writers' group. One that I make me feel right at home when I see their funny and sometimes crazy tweets.

I can easily over come my insecurity in my lack of spelling skill with autocorrect, spell check, Google or an oldie but a goody the dictionary. 

I had planned to give a list of my writing insecurities and why but instead decided to create a series about it. 

What are your writing insecurities? You are welcome to answer in the comments below.