The Joy of Fixion
Welcome? Hello? What is this? And other questions.
Heyy.
I’m Jo. By night, an award-winning writer. By day, an editor who used to hate editing with a violent passion.
Mostly because I thought it was a massive pain in the arse. I thought editing was the boring part of writing. I believed it was somehow less creative than the initial honeymoon period of a first draft — the analytical counterpart to the true CREATION of ART in a flurry of words and inspiration and muses flouncing about the place, all scantily clad and sexy-like.
Then I realised editing is often where the real magic happens. Where you get to take the raw material — that lump of amorphous wordy clay — and shape it into an actual story. Where you get to discover the alchemy of transforming a fever dream of ideas and subconscious connections into something tangible. Where you get to be a detective and a sculptor and a choreographer and a director and a chef all at once, building and layering and developing a vague literary vision into that most elusive of things: A Final Draft.
Working with other writers, helping them to find the best way to tell their tales, figuring out how their literary brains work, how stories work — all of that made me a better writer, too.
And now I’m an editor who stakes my living on the joy of fixing other people’s words.
Fixion = fixing your fiction.
(I do love a good pun, too.)
But mostly I’m here for the JOY of writing. Having spent almost 10 years teaching creative writing, studying narrative theory, and running a full blown literary organisation, the most important thing I learned was that to write, you need to actually enjoy the process. There are no rules, routines, or secret techniques that will get you to The End — you just need to find the joy and follow it.
So what is this substack about then?
Well, as a writer and editor at large, I’m planning on writing about writing, editing, and “The Process”, along with some writing prompts, exercises, musings on the literary industry, and possibly a few pictures of my dog (all the guidelines say that’s what makes or breaks a substack, apparently). Her name is Frankie and she is a menace to society, but wreaks her chaotic machinations with style.
Ok, cute dog, but who the hell am I?
I’m an award-winning writer, novelist, scriptwriter and poet. (Buuuut it’s still a whole lot easier to fix someone else’s writing than my own, so do as I say, not as I do.)
Many moons ago, I was also the co-founder of Writers’ HQ, and have since written hundreds of writing courses, workshops and masterclasses, along with mentoring, supporting and teaching thousands of writers to find their own writerly way.
If you really want to know more, get thee to the about section of my substack, or my website, where you can read some of my writing, hire me as an editor or mentor, or just say hi.
Right. Awkward intro post done. I’ll be back with some actual words about writing, editing and all the bits in between soon. Until then, I wish you all the wordy joy.
Jo