Poncho Writer

Warm your hands in front of a firestorm...

At times, I use "White" and "Black" - capitalized - as visual shorthand for a person's physical appearance. Thoughts?

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Writing advice is well-intentioned, and I want to be a better writer...but I am the writer that I am. I feel unsettled as I stray from my inner compass, even when it points off to nowhere.

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Tonal void.

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A heron stool motionless at the shoreline...

How??? This is my 3rd revision. What did I do the first two times? I guess ol does look a little like a d. Okay, I blame the English language.

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I do, who doesn't, but...as painful as it is I must wrestle with every word.

Two months later and I finally hit the halfway mark on my line editing revision, now revision #3. I am certain I will need at least one more pass. Every day gives me more reason to admire professional writers.

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Subject, squirrel, verb.

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I wrote the word "connection" twice in the same sentence. Sigh. I didn't even catch it in the first two revisions. Double Sigh.

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Mowing a lawn with a pair of scissors is the rough equivalent to line editing.

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They edited Kafka, sanitized him, only to realize that the mess was the point.

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I knew another author who published 6 books - traditionally - and quit. Then it was time to pay bills and get a real job (as a teacher). The publishing industry profits 10x more than the authors they gatekeep do - while adding little.

A nameless author with 12 traditionally published books to their name once slept on my couch for a year.

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Why are content warnings so rare?

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I would guess that the vast majority of violence is written by people whom it has never stained.

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Confession. When writing a scene, I mine youtube and google maps for visual details. I wish I could live in all the places and see all the things that I write about.

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Line editing is half water flowing downhill...and half trying to make it go the other way.

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Agents, editors, publishers, beta readers, sensitivity readers - the scary sacrilege in letting go of the handrails of their advice.

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I am pretty content with relative anonymity. It's manageable. I think I would freak out and turn the internet off.

I am amused by tiktok authors posting videos of writing. Monty Python literally did that as a skit. My videos would include hours of getting absolutely nothing done. Squirrel!

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lol. It does have a pull.

Me after one page of line editing: The rhythm of this sentence feels a little constrained.

...100 pages later...

"emoulderate" ... I don't think that's a real word. eh. whatever.

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A book and a 70,000 piece jenga puzzle.

I somehow hit 70,000 words exactly. That's it, I'm done. No one touch it.

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This sentence would work great with the word "phalanx". *edits* ... *reads next sentence* ... I guess that explains why I already used it here.

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Slowly. Quickly.

Y'all writers know what I am talking about.

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Fact: an Armenian dance troupe makes every wedding better. We need this joy in our lives!

I feel so much empathy when I see a sentence repeated in a book. Someone went over this book until their eyes bled.

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Relative: Did you ever publish that book you finished? Me: ... um...no. How to explain line editing...it is done except for the words.

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Being a writer is a second, or third, full time job. Sometimes I have to be okay with taking a step back. There is only so much wick to burn.

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Life took me away from my line editing for a little while. I might have been a little okay with that. Now to climb back on the horse...

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