No.
I hate ellipsis in creative writing. And you can't change my mind.
When I see ellipsis, I always feel like the author considers all readers to be complete and utter imbeciles by default. They would never for the life of them be able to understand e.g. a change in tone within a sentence. Or it seems that the writer considers to be so superior in their thoughtfulness that the puny average person would never ever be able to comprehend without a good ol' ellipsis guiding them to the light of the more philosophical.
Whatever the problem may be, it is not mine. I simply hate ellipsis.
(Yes, there may be an exception if it is used in a dialogue where one of the participants, the one currently speaking, is killed mid word. But I wouldn't advise to overuse this either.)
Themes and processes
When we did Pangea Press issue 1, the theme was kind of broad - it was about feminism, what it means to the writer. And I remember thinking to myself: "I can't believe we still have to protest this shit." It was a strange thought that didn't leave me throughout the process. It made me angry, it made me sad. All sorts.
Little did I know, apparently.
The theme for Issue 2 is Queer Anger and Dystopia.
My Pangea Press folder is full of word documents that ooze anger, scream at injustices, plead or even demand something, anything better, or portray the emotional disconnect with the world that we live in. And this hits so much more. Oof.
But at the same time, all of these pieces give me so much more hope than sadness. We are brave. And we will continue to be [brave].
There, I said it. Now, back to the article about marriage.
That one word
Often when I edit texts, I find that the author has latched to a word that keeps repeating over and over throughout the piece. Previously I've had to do some research how to replace "cute" and the more complicated case of "unique" among others. Today it seems to be all about "thus". There's a word I myself never use, so I don't need to do as much additional searches.
Yet I do sometimes wonder how all these queries impact (or don't) my personal, non editor research results. Clearly, not enough to research that, tho :D
And so it begins
The submission deadline for Pangea Press Issue 2 hasn't even come, but I already have messages from writers about this, that and the other. Some of these this 'n thats are pretty cool, mind.
Let's see if we can get two issues out in the world this year. I'm already looking forward to the Out Now parties, hehe.
The zine launch graduation
We launched a magazine and I have pics to prove that I got a rose with a boob vase to show for it! :)
I keep thinking how we will do the second issue. I have so many things I'd like to do differently. At the same time, I am not too sure everyone else will feel the same way, haha.
Either way, I'm glad we did it.
The magazine is out!
I haven't blogged about editing much lately. It is largely because I haven't done much of editing recently :D
Last night was the Pangea Press feminist magazine launch party! Omg, I felt like I have graduated something, especially when the founder gave us (the 3 people team) each a rose, a copy of the mag, and a little boob vase. (There might be pics later.) I hadn't felt this lost and pleased at the same time for a while. But it also felt like the 6 months of back an forth, working with writers, chasing them down, looking up words, debating Oxford commas, etc. actually meant something. All of it suddenly has value. An outcome. A printed stack of paper with so many stories, emotions, analytical pieces, poems, it is no longer just something arbitrary that I spent time on. It is real.
When I heard the writers reading out their pieces, I kept smiling like a crazy person, because I still have all of those pieces in my head. I knew which parts we worked on together, which sentences we argued about, the progresses made and agreements reached. I remember the discussions about titles, and reasoning why certain things should be different. Not that I don't smile like a crazy person on other occasions, but this one got me differently.
I had never before held in my hands, and heard with my ears the pieces that I had been a part of. Someone else's stories that I had taken apart, prodded, and most of all - cared for.
The first issue is out. I can exhale and start making notes on how to do the next one better :D
Be brave, who knows what will happen :)
Something almighty
The feminist magazine I've been editing and trying to put together has dragged out in all seriousness. Partially due to my procrastination, partially due to real life things, partially because the deadline got extended to align with Prague Pride, partially due to.. Well. You try chasing up all those authors and beg them for corrections or bios :D See how you get on! :D
Anyway. But today I sat down at it again.
The only three things left are: waiting on approval on my edits from an author, waiting on a bio from another author, double checking the complete file and the order of pieces if it still makes sense.
Oh goody. Beer time!
Sigh
Some times it feels like I'm chasing the writers around and they are all running chaotically away, just so they wouldn't have to fix their own stuff or write their own bios :D
The truth is
The less I write about writing, the more I actually do writing.
The less I write about editing, the more I am stalling my editing tasks. I really need to get on with them, tho. Both other author pieces and my own podcast episode editing.
Realisation surprise
I have recently been reading and editing young feminist writings of all sorts. What absolutely flabbergasts me is that they are fighting and resisting the exactly same things I used to when I was their age. Moments like these make me wonder, has the world not changed at all in the last 10 - 15 years?
The words we use
Author: there’s also a horrible parenthetical frankensentence near the end
K: I know :D
Author: you’ll know the one, I mean when you get to it
it is…
quite something
dickensian in length
K: I was going to say German, but dickensian works just as well :D
Sent messages
Sometimes as the editor, I find myself sending a message to a writer that goes like this:
"In this sentence [quote] you imply that the wanker shot two people and then himself. But in the next paragraph he's alive again!"
Maybe talking to people before my second coffee isn't that great of an idea.
Lots of editing upon editing
There's two things in today's editor's notes.
Thing number one is the good ol' story how each piece I edit, always has that 'one word' that clearly has been stuck in the writer's mind because it is all over the place. I remember previously having to deal with the word "unique" which was a bit strange in a philosophical way. Today I've looked over a poem and an essay to provide early editorial feedback. Both are written by the same author. The word of today is "pretty". In this case mostly used ironically as the cringe. Nice :D
Thing number two is that I have finally fucking finished editing episode 1 for my podcast. Hesus, that took way longer than is polite, but that's life, I guess. Not all that polite, more of a mess. Anyway. I have edited the episode and I have picked and edited the trailer for the series, and it feels like a massive and unexpected victory. Imagine a "ta-da" emoji here, please :)
Thanks everyone. So much thanks.
I'll try to be brave and post a link when it reaches The Out There.
Life, eh :)
New and newer
The power of question
Lately it's all been book here, book there, all about the book. Not that the book doesn't deserve to be talked about, there's also other things bubbling in life.
Today I was interviewing in a way a client about a piece they need written. They were telling me this and that. We discussed the somewhat more obvious set of W questions - who, what, when, where, and why.
And there I am, remembering the TV series Only Murders in the Building. (Great series - I recommend!) In that series the questions where four - who, why, how and Why Now.
Not only the Why Now question to the client gave me the best answer and the best guidance on how to write this piece. It also immediately hit me with the concept for he second episode for the podcast. I've been struggling a little bit with it. I know the poem for it, I know I want to talk about sir Terry Pratchett's influence on my writer development. I just wasn't sure how to go about it. Now I do - I need to answer the Why Now question and all will fall into place.
Because, dear reader, Why Now holds the best answer to everything we do. And the most honest one at that.
I'm here because I finally have the courage to be here.
See you soon :)
