Writers and editors

A Reading Note

What’s a good analogy about writers and editors without a reference to fire?

“Communication,” I recently told a class of writers, “is your reason for being—not nourishment of ego, not praise of colleagues, not money, not love of generations to come. You write to communicate to the hearts and minds of others what’s burning inside you—

“And we edit to let the fire show through the smoke.”

Plotnik, The Elements of Editing, page 31

Drama aside, I love this.

Selected essays

Writing essays & notes

  1. There and here

    On Always Coming Home and Orality and Literacy

  2. The open universe

    On The Language of the Night and The Real World of Technology

Reading books

  1. Was

    by Geoff Ryman

  2. Kraken

    by China Miéville

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