My greatest flaw as a writer (and there was some stiff competition, let me tell you) is that I write way too fucking much. Oh, maybe not on my blog, but for each article, short story, review, or even status update I write, I tend to use way too many of those word things.
Case in point: This post was upgraded from a tweet.
It is a classic pitfall for inexperienced writers, but having known of this weakness for a long while now I still don’t seem very interested in changing it. I am by all accounts meant to be an experiencededly shitty writer by now.
I recently wrote a short story for an anthology, and about six seconds after submitting it I realized that I had written it as if it were a novel. I wouldn’t even consider it if I was the publisher. The story spanned five different scenes, with multiple characters who developed and had their own arcs. Fuck that shit.
When I write fiction I figure out my characters and let them take the story wherever they please, which means there are inevitably about as many subplots as there are names. It could work if I would trim the fat after the fact and keep some of that to myself. Alas, I find it nigh impossible to cut huge sections from a piece of writing.
My awful fiction leans a lot on humor and awkward dialog. I want to keep all of my moments, and all of my jokes, because those are the things that bring a joy to writing for me, and they’re the bits I’m most proud of. This is clearly not what the publisher of an anthology of short stories wants, though.
Basically I am suggesting we start a literary journal for hack writers who can’t be bothered to edit their work.
