The Pitfalls of being a book coach/editor

I’ve often thought all kinds of people should be asked to take the same oath doctors do – First, do no harm. Parents, spouses, friends, teachers. Book coaches and editors. We all need to be reminded.

One of the challenges of being a book coach or an editor is overcorrecting. Writers tend to be a sensitive bunch. So I try to check – even when I’m sure I’m right. It’s so easy to get it wrong.

Usually, I see phrases people have heard but haven’t seen written. Like – All of the sudden. Escape goat. To all intensive purposes. Hunger pains.

I get it.

Sometimes these expressions have become so common they’re accepted.

So whenever I highlight one of these phrases, I always add – Please check.

But there’s one expression I’ve been sure about, maybe a little smug about – until today.
"I could feel the pit growing in my stomach."

This has come up often enough that I have a standard comment.

Using a light touch, I’ve explained that pits don’t grow in stomachs. The expression is figurative. Like – from the bottom of my heart. Off the top of my head. In the pit of my stomach.

But today, in the New York Times, of all places, I saw – “I felt a pit in my belly.”

Wait. What?

Had stomach/belly pits sneaked into common usage, and I was unaware?

Did I need to write to every author I’d worked with and apologize for leading them astray?

Before I made another mistake - I looked it up.

And there from Professor Paul Brians’ book Common Errors in English Usage, he explains:

                                            pit in my stomach
“Just as you can love someone from the bottom of your heart, you can also experience a sensation of dread in the pit (bottom) of your stomach. I don’t know whether people who mangle this common expression into ‘pit in my stomach’ envision an ulcer, an irritating peach pit they’ve swallowed or are thinking of the pyloric sphincter; but they’ve got it wrong.”
 
A little heavier on biology than I usually go. But reassuring.

​So. In case you saw it in today's paper, too - by in large, this should give you great piece of mind.