diff --git a/rinja_derive/src/config.rs b/rinja_derive/src/config.rs
index 9c45b6e3..e5b1e790 100644
--- a/rinja_derive/src/config.rs
+++ b/rinja_derive/src/config.rs
@@ -148,7 +148,7 @@ impl Config {
 
         if !syntaxes.contains_key(default_syntax) {
             return Err(CompileError::new(
-                format!("default syntax \"{default_syntax}\" not found"),
+                format_args!("default syntax \"{default_syntax}\" not found"),
                 file_info,
             ));
         }
@@ -342,13 +342,13 @@ pub(crate) fn read_config_file(
     if filename.exists() {
         fs::read_to_string(&filename).map_err(|err| {
             CompileError::no_file_info(
-                format!("unable to read {}: {err}", filename.display()),
+                format_args!("unable to read {}: {err}", filename.display()),
                 span,
             )
         })
     } else if config_path.is_some() {
         Err(CompileError::no_file_info(
-            format!("`{}` does not exist", filename.display()),
+            format_args!("`{}` does not exist", filename.display()),
             span,
         ))
     } else {
diff --git a/rinja_parser/src/lib.rs b/rinja_parser/src/lib.rs
index 1a00a224..83188e6f 100644
--- a/rinja_parser/src/lib.rs
+++ b/rinja_parser/src/lib.rs
@@ -754,8 +754,9 @@ impl State<'_, '_> {
         .parse_next(i)?;
         if let Some(control) = control {
             let message = format!(
-                "unclosed block, you likely meant to apply whitespace control: {:?}",
-                format!("{control}{}", self.syntax.block_end),
+                "unclosed block, you likely meant to apply whitespace control: \"{}{}\"",
+                control.escape_default(),
+                self.syntax.block_end.escape_default(),
             );
             Err(ParseErr::backtrack(ErrorContext::new(message, *i).into()))
         } else {