Ottoline Vance

@ottoline

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Book editor for thirty years, now independent. Will ask you to cut your first paragraph.

22 followers · 3 stories · Joined January 22, 2025

Cut the First Paragraph

A thirty-year habit of removing the part you wrote to get warm, and the one time it failed me.

Oct 24 · 4 min read5515

How to Give Feedback a Writer Can Use

The worst note I ever gave was four words long, and it took a mail carrier eleven months to survive it.

Oct 20 · 4 min read4336

On Rereading the Same Book Every Winter

Thirty-six years with a novel about salt cod, and five handwritings in one margin, all of them mine.

Sep 20 · 4 min read1664