When a writer puts an ad on the wall in class, and it has THERE instead of THEIR, or when someone emails me a script that’s obviously missing a word, or a designer sends campaign or presentation layouts with inconsistent fonts, or a director sends a treatment with the product misspelled, it feels sloppy. Sloppy is different from an honest mistake. It’s different from an idea that isn’t quite working yet. Sloppy says that you didn’t take the time to do a quick read-through before you shared your work. Sloppy says that you had more important things to do. Sloppy says you don’t really care. It’s a pain in the ass to work with somebody who doesn’t care. Even on the crappy assignments, the ones that don’t stand a chance of ever going in your book, you should care about your craft and how it reflects on you.
So make mistakes. Just don’t be sloppy.
