Twitter and the Lost Art of Editing

by E. Amato

The more social media evolves, the more I love Twitter.

As I scroll through my Facebook feed, I am toxically assaulted with the rants and raves of various people - some of whom are ranting and raving counter to the person above and below them. The Patricia Arquette thing pretty much sent me over the edge. On the one hand, the "privileged," "well-meaning," white feminists of a certain age on my stream were cheering her Oscar speech, while seemingly oblivious to the backlash her subsequent comments affected. On the other hand, the diverse, activist, artist intersectionalists in my stream were asking for her head on a platter. I'm sure there might have been a middle ground, carefully falling through the algorithmic net, because all I saw were the extremes.

Every time I am on Facebook, or even while reading a new book - say, Roxanne Gay's Bad Feminist - I have to wonder, what happened to editing? Are rant and blurt the only communication options we can embrace as a culture?

Once upon a time, I worked in publishing. Like a real publisher. Like a big one, with a whole building. On Fifth Avenue. In Manhattan.

Editors were superstars who collected superstar writers like baseball cards and had standing lunch reservations at restaurants where they could spend hours wining and dining new writers - only to work well into the night on the manuscript getting ready for production. Their assistants and their assistants' assistants poured over every line of text. Freelance editors, proofreaders, and copy editors were employed.  Cuts were made mercilously, copy was edited. Pages were covered in proofreader's marks.

Somewhere in all that, the book emerged. Pristine, unruffled, elegant and most importantly, potently communicative.

I wish I could remember who said "show me a novel over 1000 pages and I'll show you a bad book." (I generally agree, except when it comes to Neal Stephenson books and The Goldfinch.) When I take hold of a book over 400 pages, I start to wonder - is this really worth it? Or is there an excellent 200 - 300 page book hiding in this manuscript somewhere that will never truly see the light of day?

We read more than ever, yet we also misread more than ever. We have certainly lost the art of the self-edit, and very little of the text we read every day seems to have seen the eyes of a professional editor.

Enter twitter: home of the 140 characters. Yes, characters - not even letters and not words - characters. Spaces count. URLs count. Everything counts. You can distill a tweet and distill it again and it still may not make it. You can choose to do a string of tweets, but there's no guarantee someone will see them all, or realize that's what you are doing or bother to find your whole story. No. If you want to say something on twitter, you are going to have to be succinct.

Succinct. Even the sound it makes sounds like a paper cutter or a Japanese sword.

To say that I've placed all my hopes for a new generation of rock star editors and writers in Twitter is not an overstatement. Embarrassing, perhaps, but not an overstatement. Tens of thousands of people getting their point across in 140 characters or less is something of a marvel. As these little gems scroll by, like a ticker tape feed, I can feel the human race becoming smarter again, finding discipline, shirking indulgence.

It's a beautiful sound.

p.s. If you know the source of the quote I'm paraphrasing please do leave it in the comments! Google didn't help! Cheers!

Zestyverse Editor/Publisher E. Amato has woven a creative life that moves fluidly between words, stages, film, and practical activism. She was a member of the 2011 Los Angeles Slam Team and has competed at Poetry Slam Nationals and WOWps. In 2010, Zesty Pubs released her first collection, Swimming Through Amber, her Kindle book 5 in 2012, and her second poetry collection, Will Travel, in 2013. In 2007 and 2008 Down Home traveled to the Festival Fringe in Edinburgh, garnering 5-star reviews consecutive years – a rare honour. She recently produced Homeless in H

Quote of the Week - Ellison

Yup. Another one from the archives. From Harlan Ellison. About digging deep, finding your fearless and loving the tightrope.

Love the tightrope.

Writing Is Not a Mystery - Characters and Intimacy

My happy stressless place - oh it's about people with intimacy issues!

by E. Amato

Raise your hand if you have intimacy issues.

Yeah, we all do, right?

We're more comfortable as avatars than as people. Okay, that's cool. You have your friends, fam, acquaintances and real intimacy, well you know.

Only one problem: you're also a writer. And if you want to get through a draft of that screenplay or novel, you are going to have to get real cozy, and maybe even naked, with your characters, and by reflection, with yourself.

There's no substitute for this. No cheating. If you want to get through the writing process, at some point, you are going to be challenged in this way. The mirror that is the writing process will hold itself up to you and you will have nowhere to run. Best to strap yourself in and hang on tight.

We write what is interesting to us. Often this means we write about what we haven't worked out yet. Sometimes we do this in very sneaky ways. Your story may be about two brothers, one of whom betrays the other, but somehow, you are feeling twisted as you work on it and finally realize it's about you and your ex-girlfriend and how she disappeared one day without even a note.

If the issues being brought up are too painful STOP WRITING and start healing. This can be as simple as meditating, free writing, or just doing gentle self care through the process. It may mean getting a therapist or doing regular check-ins with a friend.

As a coach, I would never push someone past their level of comfort. There should be stretching and growth in this process, of course, but not pain. Pain is bad.

When it gets like this, breathe, put on an episode of The IT Crowd and get yourself a milkshake (or the vegan, sugarfree alternative that suits you best). Be willing to reconsider your project, or put it away for later. It's possible you don't have to write it now. It's very possible you don't want to write it now. A screenplay or novel can take over your life in the best of circumstances.  There's no need to intensify that process.

On the other hand, you're going to have to find the place between the outside of your comfort zone and pain. That's where the good stuff is. In order to write characters with depth and a level of reality, you are going to need to spend serious time with them. They are going to start to feel real to you. Their world may start to feel more real than your own. This is okay. This is good. This is creation. Love this.

I often think of Eames Demetrios who has created a parallel universe to our own in his Kcymaerxthaere  He could not create this fantastic world if he didn't want to hang out in it, know these people and live these stories. Your world may not be 3D, but it needs to be real inside of you. For that to happen, you are going to have to get close with these characters and their joys and sufferings. It's inevitable.

The good characters, the evil characters, they are all emanating from your imagination and they will all contain parts of you. You may find things out about yourself you did not know. That might be weird.  If you go over to the dark side in your brain in order to write your villain, that doesn't make you a bad person. It makes you a person capable of compassion and understanding. But remember, it's your actions, not your inner literary ramblings, that define who you are and your boundaries. Create a safe and balanced safe for yourself and write.

Zestyverse Editor/Publisher E. Amato has woven a creative life that moves fluidly between words, stages, film, and practical activism. She was a member of the 2011 Los Angeles Slam Team and has competed at Poetry Slam Nationals and WOWps. In 2010, Zesty Pubs released her first collection, Swimming Through Amber, her Kindle book 5 in 2012, and her second poetry collection, Will Travel, in 2013. In 2007 and 2008 Down Home traveled to the Festival Fringe in Edinburgh, garnering 5-star reviews consecutive years – a rare honour. She recently produced Homeless in Homeland, Saria Idana’s solo piece, which received 4 stars at the Brighton Fringe 2013. 

Quote of the Week - Lahiri

"For surely it is a magical thing for a handful of words, 
artfully arranged, to stop time." 

- Jhumpa Lahiri

It is.


I heard about The Clock movie, but didn't get to see it.  Maybe next time.


Happy April! 


P.S.  The above quote come from a NY Times blog by Jhumpa Lahiri, which I've posted on before.  

Jhumpa Lahiri on Sentences

This is just too elegant not to post.  Yes.  Exclamation point. Click.  Read.

Jhumpa Lahiri's blog on sentences - the cornerstones of writing.

Consider it an addendum to the Writing series or the Women's series or both.

Read her books if you haven't.

Writing Is Not A Mystery - Sit Down, John

(Second in a series.  If you missed the first one, click here.)

There is this moment in 1776, when John Adams is being a particular a**hole.

Normally, he's annoying, a pain, a cynic, a devil's advocate, a blowhard, stubborn, and many more words, not as diplomatic, but in this moment, he's being an a**hole.

This being a musical - the other members of the Continental Congress decide that the thing to do here, of course, would be to sing about it.  What else would a bunch of middle-aged, powdered-wig-wearing men of property do in this situation?

Lucky for us -- the whole song is on YouTube.  Please watch:




Writers can be a particular kind of  a**hole, too, sometimes.  Sometimes, they think the thing will write itself. (It won't.)  Sometimes, they think they'll write it later. (They might.)  Sometimes, they think the laundry is more important. (Usually not.)  Sometimes, they run out of sometimes and make more sometimes up.

But eventually, time runs out, and the thing is not written, nor the other things that might have flowed from it.  There is no finished script, no body of work, just a shoulderful of bad feelings about writing.

If you are a writer, you need to take the advice of the Second Continental Congress and  SIT DOWN.

What did Adams write when he finally sat down?   Thoughts on Government which formed the basis of the framework for many state constitutions.  He wrote the Massachusetts State Constitution.  Rich letters to his wife, Abigail, to Jefferson and to George Washington.  Not to mention essays, treatises, and speeches.

But Adams isn't the point here; sitting down is the point.

You gotta sit down.  Now and often hereafter.  Whenever you want to get up - think of the song.


And sit down!

(More on sitting down in the next installment.  Also, there's a resource list of recommended books on the Coaching/Consulting page.)

Writing Is Not A Mystery

Writing is not a mystery.  It's not.  It's an activity, a craft, occasionally an art, a skill, and a process.  As with any art, craft, skill, process, or sport, mystery can enter into it when there is a confluence of agility, personal qualities, and circumstance.

In and of itself, however, I wouldn't call it a mystery.

Demystifying the process is not too tough.  Writers create mystery around themselves to make the task at hand seem more difficult (it's actually difficult enough already).  Writers ascribe mystery to make themselves feel better when it's not going well or when they are scared to approach it.  Writers call it a mystery when they are not yet writers, feel that they should be, yet have no idea how to begin.

When it comes to writing, people sit down to type the great American novel or screenplay as if no preparation is needed or even exists.  This soon lands most in a whole lot of trouble, the kind that usually leads to defining writing as indefinable - a mystery.

Why do so many treat writing as if it were different from other disciplines?

As a writer and a coach, my observations lead me to believe that, in part, it is because both the essential skills and tools are readily available, and taught to almost everyone at some time in their youth.  We learn the alphabet as toddlers, to write letters in pre-school or kindergarten, to read in elementary school, grammar in middle or high school.  We have pens and pencils and paper and computers and printers all around us.

Unlike other crafts and arts, the tools themselves are secondary.  It's not a big investment to become a writer - you can steal office supplies from your temp job if you must.  You don't need $100 running shoes (actually, you don't need $100 running shoes), a Yonex racquet, 5 pairs of toe shoes, a drum kit, no - just paper and pencil are good for a start.  It doesn't matter if you're using a fountain pen or a MacBook Pro - you can still write at a high level.

So -- that means everyone can write, right?

(Insert skeptical face here.)

One would not attempt a Swan Lake pas de deux without ever having set foot in ballet class, practicing, stretching, toning, learning the choreography, but only from seeing productions of the ballet.  

After being a tennis fan for years, one would not step onto the court to battle Roger Federer, having never taken a lesson, or played, or done strength training.

Anyone can write, but not everyone can.

It doesn't work that way.  It works the way being a prima ballerina or Roger Federer works -- you have to actively cultivate the skills to approach the craft as an art.  You have to show up consistently. You have to practice.  If you want to be better than the pro at the club, you have to put in your 10,000 hours.

In the way that talking doesn't always mean communicating, knowing how to write sentences does not always translate into the craft of writing.

Most of all, you have to start simply.  Build your muscles up, and your stamina.  No marathon Crime & Punishments until you've done your scales.  (Yes - mixed metaphor - well done for spotting it.)

(First in a series on Demystifying the Writing Process.  Next up:  Where to Begin.)