I worked for a literary magazine called the Chiron Review for a lot of years. I was one of two fiction editors, brought in for the last 10 years of its 30 year run. It was a literary magazine distributed fairly widely. We had a devoted readership and I had been a huge fan for years before they asked me to be a part of it. The fact that they published me was one of those things that I counted as proof that I was a real writer.
I think it’s a good experience for any writer to be an editor of some kind. It taught me a lot of things not to do, but more importantly, it gave me a renewed sense of the magic of being a writer.
I have all the horror stories that everyone else has of writers who made terrible choices about what to send us or what to say in their letters, but those things never really bothered me the way it bothers other editors. What I mostly was reminded of when I got those letters was how isolated writers feel all of the time. They don’t know how to write the letter because they’re not a part of a larger community, and finding that community often seems difficult when people are first starting out.
Most of what I saw excited me. It reminded me of how thrilling it was and is to be a writer.
I was always eager to accept something into the magazine. It had been my dream to be included in Chiron for years, and I knew it was the same for a lot of people.
What I often enjoyed most though was when I got a story from someone who was starting out and had written something interesting, but it wasn’t right for one reason or another. I loved writing to those people, giving advice, maybe suggesting a revise and resubmit. The first time I did that, I assumed I was going to offend the writer. And I know that I offended a couple of people. For the most part, however, when I got a response people were excited. It reminded me of how good it had felt when I was starting out and had gotten my first bits of encouragement.
I wrote to one really promising writer. Her story hadn’t fit, but she had a great voice. I told her so and asked her to send another story if she wanted to. In her excitement, she misunderstood and sent me 7 stories.
That was all right. That was great. It hadn’t been what I asked for, but it reminded me of one of the reasons I wrote, and the biggest reason I sent out my work to magazines. The idea that my story was going to be read by other people, that my story might touch another person was magic, and that writer showed me exactly how magic it could be.
One of her stories hit, and we published her. I don’t know what her name is. I’ve forgotten, but I hope she’s having the kind of career I think she is capable of. Her work touched me and her work ethic did too. I’m a better writer and person for being an editor. I think it’s something all writers should do.
6 comments:
Love how your experienced created compassion and excitement for writers. Wish there were more like you!
I'd love to do something like that, although I'm sure there are frustrating, tedious moments. I make do with freelance editing in the meantime. I'm in the middle of an anthology by a MFA-CW candidate right now and really enjoying it.
Nice to hear a very positive tale told from the editor side of the desk. We usually hear the "horror" stories.
Touching. I wish there were more editors like you who see the diamonds in the graphite rather than the useless lumps of coal.
When I imagine editors (especially acquisition editors) I visualize an old school ma'am totally overworked and harassed who reads the first word and stamps, "REJECT!" then shouts, "NEXT!"
When I first tried to get published only one editor took the time to respond personally and point out the weakness in my story. I wrote her a heartfelt thank you.
You're peeking out from behind the curtain. I know there are monsters at those literary magazines, and you can't convince me otherwise.
Some monsters exist, but most are writers who are rooting for you. Mostly they are terrified of facing someone that looks like themselves. I know every time I rejected someone, I thought of how I as a writer would have reacted.
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