CREATIVE EDITING
ENGLISH IS WEIRD:
CREATIVE EDITING AND THE RULES WE BREAK
INSTRUCTOR: BETH ILER
Recommended for students of any skill level aged 18+
English is a chaotic little goblin. It steals from other languages. It contradicts itself. It insists on rules it doesn’t follow. And then, just when you think you understand it, someone says you can’t end a sentence with a preposition. So what’s a writer supposed to do?
In this discussion-driven workshop, we’ll poke at the strange, contradictory, and sometimes arbitrary rules of English and explore how creative writers can make confident editing decisions inside all that weirdness. Instead of memorizing grammar commandments, we’ll look at how language actually behaves on the page and how rule-bending can become a powerful craft tool.
What We’ll Explore:
• Grammar “rules” that aren’t actually rules
• Why English contradicts itself (historically and stylistically)
• Sentence fragments, comma splices, and glorious run-ons
• The drama of the Oxford comma
• Split infinitives and other so-called sins
• When breaking the rule strengthens the writing
This workshop is for writers who:
• Have ever googled “is this grammatically correct” at midnight
• Feel unsure about what’s actually a rule
• Want to edit with confidence instead of fear
• Enjoy arguing about commas
REGISTER NOW: SATURDAY | MAY 30 | 12 PM TO 2 PM | $75
MEET YOUR INSTRUCTOR
Beth Iler is an independent editor, journalist, and author with a BS in Journalism and an MA in Publishing. With over ten years of editing experience, she brings versatility and precision to every project. She enjoys hiking, going to poetry slams, and Swedish metal concerts. She reads way too many books at one time, from poetry to weird medical non-fiction. But her true love is fantasy and myths.