edit

a very nice fellow was putting together a collection of incredibly short narratives under a hundred words. i tried coming up with something, as it was a peculiar challenge. some time passed and i had forgotten about my submission at all until i received a question from the editor:

"i'd prefer to spell "anymore" as "any more". have any objections to that?"

for some reason this suggestion set me off. i fired off a completely arrogant and vicious email in which i lambasted the editor for even trying to apply his own sense of style to what is effectively an extremist form (i mean, who writes 100 word narratives?). my thinking was that his preference was stupid and totalitarian, my submission being, after all, creative writing. i began fretting over the idea that the editor was applying this same sense of aesthetic to less vocal or more submissive writers who might gladly accept his all-knowing changes simply because he is the supposedly all-knowing editor.

part of what pissed me off so much was that 'anymore' can be spelled either way, and the context in which i used it (i was suggesting the idea of something not happening any longer) flowed better with the single word spelling. his retort was that he uses the oxford canadian. my reaction to this is since when is the fucking oxford canadian a tool for editing creative writing. sure, if i flagrantly misspelled something there would be reason to question (not suggest) that i may have made an error. the role of the editor is to check with the writer to confirm that an apparent mistake is in fact a mistake and not an intentional variant - and if it is intentional, but not obvious as to why it is so, then it is the editor's role to address this.

i freaked out because i perceive this kind of highly subjective editing as totalitarian.

admittedly, i had no right to reply with the piss and vinegar email i sent him. he is a good fellow, and i sent him an apology afterward. i don't typically send shooting from the hip emails. i despise them, and prefer to meditate on my replies. this is why the physical letter is in some ways superior to the haphazard insta-replies of the internet age.

{August 16, 2003 08:41 PM}