How to Edit Fiction/Philosophy of Writing – Post Zero

Welcome to my blog. Thanks for looking.

This post was actually written in October of 2012, which is when I decided to split my “How to Edit Fiction” webinar into two. I made this decision because I was never designed to be chirrupy and popular. My earlier posts in the webinar are attempts to teach people the deeper mechanisms that whir away under my writing, the ones I’m always bogged down by – but in a folksy, approachable tone, god knows what I was thinking – and I consider them failed attempts.

As my later posts got deeper, darker, and more cerebral, I began to look back and cringe. I forged ahead, because nobody cares about my earlier posts, but when I started writing my latest post I realised that nobody but me takes Grice’s conversational maxims into account when writing dialogue and so the title “How to Edit Fiction” has become not only presumptuous, but rude.

So there are two choices from here: you can follow me down the twisted and likely inaccurate path my brain takes to putting words on a page (Philosophy of Writing), or you can view my aborted attempts at folksiness and laugh (How to Edit Fiction). Bear in mind that the “Philosophy of Writing” series loses its false charm like a leaky bottle, so you’ll have to put up with abortive and confusing writing exercises before I throw up my hands and say fuck it, I’m not a teacher.

My head looks like this inside.

vs

This is what I wanted you to see.