Do you/Should you make mistakes on purpose?

Part of the coffee crew at the local real estate office writes for a local paper. Earle Wittpenn’s Pearls of wisdom are entertaining and often the talk of the town. I’ll be happy if I can, one day, be half the writer Mr. Wittpenn is.

A couple of people read what I have to say on a daily basis, some comment, hopefully there are a few thoughts provoked and some learning going on.

I tried something with an online bio that I wrote a while ago and it came to fruition yesterday. After reading about me and what I do someone got in touch with me to talk about my bio and a mistake they spotted in it.

My response went something to the effect of “There is method in my madness”, I went on to explain and closed with “did it work?”

Something I learned from Earle is that mistakes get people talking, it happens with his articles. People approach Earle on the street to point out an error or omission. This is a good thing!

If nothing else you initiate a conversation with a reader can ask them what they thought of the rest of the article and can gauge who is reading your work and really paying attention.

Of course there are those people out there who will think that you don’t know how to spell but you have to break a few eggs to make that omelet, right?

Whether the mistake was purposefully, carefully and thoughtfully inserted into the text on purpose or not (there are claims that mistakes are made on purpose) is somewhat besides the point. The fact remains that mistakes get people talking. It’s human nature to pick up on others’ misgivings and point them out.

Why not use it to your advantage?

What do you think?