Editors Are Usually Really Nice People by Jane Friedman

photo by Ian Burnes

If you have Zen or Buddhist inclinations—and you’re also in the profession of writing and publishing—you will love this story and meditation by Gillian Burnes. It begins:

In the middle of a Vipassana meditation retreat last summer … I went up to the teacher at the end of the dharma talk and said, as sweetly as I could, “Editors are usually really nice people.” He’d been using “editor” to stand for the harsh inner voice of self-loathing, and of course I understood what he meant, but as a magazine copy editor I had to stand up for my professional brotherhood.

Burnes goes on to discuss the difference between generation mode and analysis mode. Read the full piece in the latest Glimmer Train bulletin.

Also check out:

Poking the Tiger: Thoughts on Characterization and Story-Building by Dennis Bock
What We Settle For by Tracy Guzeman
The Dialogue Zone: When Characters Take Over by Tom Kealey

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