Gilmore Girls: I can't believe she said that

I don't know if any of you out there have ever seen the Gilmore Girls. It's kind of cute and a fun and nearly guiltless way to spend an hour. No one takes off their clothes--at least not while I've been watching--and cursing is at a minimum. I watch it occasionally when I have an hour to kill when I should probably be working on my masterpiece.

Be that as it may, Rory made a comment on yesterday's broadcast that jumped right out at me. I believe it did because I'm a writer and I love to pick apart other writers snaffus. Staring at a blinking cursor all day tends to make you cynical and petty. Regardless, I won't bore you with details of who the characters are in case you don't watch the show.

Here's the gist of the conversation. A friend asks Rory is anyone noticed something embarrassing she did.

Rory: “Everyone knows, including a man with a cane and a cup and a dog selling pencils.”

Did you catch that? Dogs don't sell pencils. Most viewers would never notice, but I was delighted. Writers for that show go to great lengths to make the dialog fast paced, witty, clever, and smart. How did this line slip past?

I shouldn't be making light of the mistake since they are all out of work.

I said all that to say this, dear writers. Pay attention to those little slips that can jerk a reader out of your story. They may not even realize what took their attention off the story. As a writer you don't want to break the spell for your reader for even a nano-second.

Not only that, there could be a cynical writer out there with nothing better to do than broadcast your blunder to the world on her blog. Be careful.