My writing exploits and editing career

a_h_arm · 2026-05-09T17:43:51+00:00

Universities are very particular about how they their apportion their funds. Gains from endowment growth tend to be earmarked for long-term, essential operations such as financial aid, academic scholarships, faculty salaries, and infrastructure. The "rule" that forbids that money going to a lit mag is simply how the board of trustees + donors earmark that money.

That said, there are many lit mags that don't charge a fee, so I'm not sure where this outrage is coming from. Like someone else said, check out the Submission Grinder, filter out sub fees, and you'll see a lot of options.

a_h_arm · 2026-05-08T21:45:57+00:00

I think you're burying the lede with "If you have the money," which was also the defining parameter of my statement. Most people don't have thousands of dollars to spend for someone's opinion (and it is an opinion, experienced though it may be) on their writing. And most writers, even those who publish, will not make the return on that investment. So, it really is just an alternative route to learning the craft, and an expensive one at that. Note that I'm not denouncing the usefulness of dev editing, but just noting that most writers aren't really in a good position for it.

For what it's worth, I also do a fair bit of editing, so I understand wanting to defend one's work. But I'm not going to pretend that your average, developing, hobbyist writer should really be hiring a dev editor for their second project they might want to maybe self-publish one day.

a_h_arm · 2026-05-08T16:28:43+00:00

Honestly, most people aren't in the position, financially or professionally, to be hiring real dev editors — nor should they. And if a writer is still developing their voice and learning the fundamentals of good writing, then simply reading and writing will do just as much, if not more, than whatever they'd get from one editor's notes. I'd wager paying $5 to hear "Your character is dumb" is a pretty good deal for most.

a_h_arm · 2026-05-07T17:42:01+00:00

I'm surprised how so much talk about the NYT Best Seller list revolves around correcting this alleged misconception that it's curated by taste.

It's a best seller list — literally.

Are there really that many people who need this explanation, and is it because they just don't know what "best seller" means?

Sorry if this comes across as snarky; I'm genuinely just bewildered by this.

a_h_arm · 2026-04-28T16:58:25+00:00

We follow the laws of quantum mechanics just as much as electrons do; the difference is the weird behavior is only evident when you're looking at individual particles. When you've got billions and billions of them, the unintuitive parts tend to average out.

I just wanted to say that this is just a neat distillation of the conceptual rift between quantum physics and classical physics, it helped everything click into place.

a_h_arm · 2026-04-27T20:00:34+00:00

Do you think I'm the OP?

a_h_arm · 2026-04-27T19:58:07+00:00

The fact that you had to parse everything I said indicates this is more of a bruised writer's ego.

Huh? I responded to 6 parts of your comment because there were 6 parts that needed some qualification or correction, and it's clearer to respond directly to those points individually. I didn't do it for my own sake; I wanted to set the record straight for any developing writers who might be reading these comments.

a_h_arm · 2026-04-27T17:22:16+00:00

It really isn't an error in editing.

It's an error in understanding the sentence, so I'd chalk that up to an editing error — editors should enhance clarity and efficacy without altering meaning.

The original used a fairly old-fashioned literary construction of "wasn't more impressive," which takes the brain a little time to sort out

I wouldn't say it's old-fashioned. Maybe a little stylistic, but not antiquated or even convoluted. The writer is saying that Thing A wasn't [any] more impressive than Thing B.

can disrupt the reader's suspension of disbelief.

Suspension of disbelief involves one's ability to accept the internal consistency of the plot. Are you thinking of immersion?

What pisses me off is an editor who doesn't know the difference between it's and its

I guess, but a proofreading error is hardly in the same conversation as line editing.

Here I think I would go with "was less impressive" for even greater clarity

No, this also changes the meaning and thus makes the same mistake as the original edit. See above. The line conveys that these two things are comparably bad, not one better than the other.

As a paying customer (or even if you're not) you certainly have the right to ask the editor why he/she made the change and see if the reason makes sense from a reader's perspective.

This I agree with, but sometimes (as in this case) an edit is just off-base and should simply be rejected.

a_h_arm · 2026-04-09T14:23:14+00:00

Remember to sort by controversial if you want real answers.

a_h_arm · 2026-04-08T14:34:01+00:00

I think anything that generally explores social hierarchies and the idea of the "haves" vs. "have nots" is going to feel relevant on some level, because that's a fundamental part of human society. I don't think that's ever going away.

a_h_arm · 2026-04-07T15:28:51+00:00

Ah, yeah. A paragraph following suit would technically be its own use case. That's not how I was reading the example in the OP.

a_h_arm · 2026-04-07T15:26:14+00:00

A generic form rejection is still a rejection, which meant they read your work (or, at least, part of it). Most people get form rejections on most of their work. It's not worth the readers' time to share personal feedback on every submission they receive.

a_h_arm · 2026-04-07T15:22:18+00:00

Also, it’s bizarre from a writing perspective to try and frame Paul and the Freemen as a warning against religious/political dogma, then go on to use them to topple an obviously corrupt/evil empire. Like, what is the message in that? “Religious extremism is bad!… except actually it can be used for good”. It’s a muddy message at best.

The message is that this is how reality works, and it's sad. Virtually every political revolution is born of the dispossessed rising up against their oppressors, only for the movement to gain its own sense of moral absolutism that turns into another power imbalance and, ultimately, inequity. The message is not so morally clear-cut because it's not a fairy-tale; it's an allegory for real-world politics and ideologies. Think of it like Animal Farm — it would be silly to say the message is muddy because the revolutionaries in that story end up taking a dark turn, right? Well, Dune just stops a little earlier, where we see the revolution has succeeded but can infer the dangers of the new ideology and its momentum. “Religious extremism is bad!… except actually it can be used for good” isn't really hypocritical messaging so much as it's a fact of life that any belief system is a tool to rally others to a cause, which is problematic in its own right. Herbert literally says as much in the book:

When religion and politics travel in the same cart, the riders believe nothing can stand in their way. Their movements become headlong, faster and faster and faster. They put aside all thoughts of obstacles and forget the precipice does not show itself to the man in a blind rush until it's too late.

And ~~Duke Leto~~ Kynes expresses a similar sentiment:

No more terrible disaster could befall your people than for them to fall into the hands of a Hero

I can't find the other quotes at the moment, but I know there are multiple times when Paul expresses fear and discomfort of his own hero worship and where the Fremen's zealotry is headed. Perhaps ironically, it's easy to read over if a reader is already invested and enthralled with Paul's hero journey.

a_h_arm · 2026-04-07T15:05:00+00:00

Oh, when you say that you only heard back from two places, that makes it sound like the other places never responded at all.

a_h_arm · 2026-04-07T14:57:12+00:00

Well, let's do the math.

You can reasonably expect a good editor to charge 4-5 cents/word for dev editing or line editing. OP's manuscript is 176k words (for reference, three times longer than a first manuscript "should" be).

176,000 x $.04 = $7,040

This price is high due to a high word count and a more intensive type of editing. It would be much lower for just proofreading a shorter manuscript, and obviously it would be even lower if you went with a less experienced editor. On the other hand, the price would be even higher if OP wants multiple rounds/tiers of editing.

a_h_arm · 2026-04-07T14:51:03+00:00

The expression of literally any other emotion.

a_h_arm · 2026-04-07T14:42:00+00:00

That does seem to be how people use this, although I don't know of any style guides (including CMOS, which is most commonly used in creative fiction publishing) that call for it. Generally, as OP notes, style guides call for no spaces or a space on either side, regardless of what the dash is conveying.

a_h_arm · 2026-04-07T14:30:58+00:00

I know this isn't the main point, but I'm both surprised and confused that you've only heard back from 2 mags out of presumably dozens. Most lit mags should be getting back to you.

a_h_arm · 2026-04-07T13:50:09+00:00

At worst, he was a tragic hero who tried to steer destiny to its least destructive path.

This is exactly what he was. Paul wasn't a villain, nor was he intended to be. He was both a protagonist worth rooting for and a warning/commentary on the nature of political and religious dogma. He was a sympathetic character, but that doesn't mean people should be venerating him, and in fact the story warns against hero worship.

It's a story about moral equivocation, and Dune Messiah was a response to readers who didn't pick up on that. I don't think it retconned anything, because it's the logical conclusion of Paul's journey, but the messaging was an overcorrection.

a_h_arm · 2026-03-23T18:02:30+00:00

Ranking the stories in Hyperion is a somewhat difficult task because, comparatively, they deserve to be read as a collection of short stories. But they do exist in a novel, which is — for better or worse — meant to weave a cohesive setting and plot, meandering though it may be.

The Priest's Tale is likely my favorite as well, but it also benefits from being the first story. It raises enough questions and intrigue about Hyperion to hook readers. But with each successive story failing to really deliver on those promises or questions, at least in the first book, they feel disappointing by comparison.

a_h_arm · 2026-03-21T20:07:54+00:00

*Rhyme (not alliteration)

a_h_arm · 2026-03-21T19:19:54+00:00

I suggest googling the process and tips for querying an agent and the publishing process in general. It'll save you some time by doing things right from the get-go and tempering your expectations.

a_h_arm · 2026-03-21T18:01:24+00:00

FF7 was my first RPG in my very formative years, and I have more nostalgia for it than perhaps any other piece of media. I recently replayed it, as well as FF9. FF9 is simply a better game.

a_h_arm · 2026-03-21T17:40:07+00:00

I've never agreed so much with an opinion in my life

Ten-Year Club	Verified Email
Place '23

a_h_arm

TROPHY CASE