When You Shouldn’t Take Writing Advice From Your Publication’s Editor

We sometimes forget that editors are people with their own biases and views of the world

Many of us trying to make a living out of our writing can sometimes forget that writing is a form of expression.

I recently submitted my work to a certain publication whose reach I wanted to test out. I know it is a relatively new publication but I just wanted to give them a chance as well. Also, they had just added me as a writer to their publication without my knowledge or application.

I thought this was cool that some publication owners were taking initiative to reach add writers to their publication. One less thing for writers to worry about having to search for and apply to publications.

But when I submitted my work and it got accepted, I didn’t think that there was anything more I could do to my article. When I write these articles, I say what I mean and repeat that in more than one sentence.

This is because if one reader fails to understand one sentence, they will understand it from the following sentences. This also helps me to merge different thoughts of my article together.

This is my writing style and I love it. I can’t tell you how many times I have read articles with unclear sentences but then the writer just moves on to the next idea. It makes the article either vague or complicated. So for me, multiple sentences talking about the same thing with a different structure is one way to ensure that I make my idea clear.

So I was surprised when someone who is probably an editor of that publication left me several notes poking holes in my expression.

It would have been fine if my grammar or spellings were wrong. It would have been fine if I had plagiarised the content. It would have been fine if it was a formating that was not aligned with the publication’s style.

Bro, your pub has no style guide, to begin with. But I would have been fine with shifting my structure to match your sense of style.

But to leave me several notes telling me how to express myself is a no-no. You have no idea what type of emotions I was having when writing and those play a huge part in the voice that comes out from me and I wish to leave it the way it is.

When we write, we don’t just want to make our sentences “tight” as this editor told me. We don’t just write to put words on paper that can be comprehended and perceived as smart writing. We write because we want to share our emotions as well if we can otherwise there would be no need to share personal stories. All of us would be writing research narratives if we wanted to keep our emotions out of it.

I am sorry I have no intention of keeping my sentences tight. When I am happy, I will write a bunch and when I am sad I will barely write long enough sentences. This is how I want to express myself.

Writing cannot just fit in a style guide if it intends to cover a broad array of emotions. When I am emotional, I just want to write and make the reader know where I am coming from and I want to do that in however many words I can.

Editors help us correct mistakes and can make suggestions but they shouldn’t be telling us how to express ourselves. We have therapists for that.

Think what you may but personal writing is sacred. Any form of writing that is personal is also sacred. People don’t want to write tight if that is not going to help them pass their emotions through authentically.

There is a reason why novel writers take time to describe to your their scenes in words. Their sentences are not tight.

And yes, there is a place for writing such types of sentences but when I don’t want to that’s because it doesn’t help me say what I mean.

Creating a publication doesn’t make you a world-class editor or better than any of those without publications. If you have a publication with 0 followers and no structure or almost no content on it, when I decide to submit my article to you as my first choice publication, you should know better than trying to tell me how I should express myself.

These attempts to try and influence the way we think are base and irrelevant. Truncating my fourteen-word sentence to make it tight won’t give you the followers you need. If you think you are an expert at determining how people’s sentences should feel, then you should also know that THIS IS SHOUTING AT SOMEONE and hopefully try to avoid it when sending notes to people.

Anyway, as a writer, your editor can help you to make your work better but if that makes you lose your voice, then it is not worth it.

Your editor should not project their biases and perversions into your work and your work must be free of all these.

This is first of all because you have something to say to the world and you no one should be trying to silence that if what you have to say is not destructive.

The other reason is that you should remember that your articles have your name on them. This means that other people’s biases and ideas of the world that are within your articles will be yours. I hope you realize why this is very important.

Happy writing.

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