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About

Who am I?


Sometimes September C. Fawkes scares people with her enthusiasm for writing. People may say she needs to get a social life. It'd be easier if her fictional one wasn't so interesting.



Fawkes wrote her first story on a whim during a school break when she was seven. Crayon-drawn, poorly spelled, and edited so that it contained huge, fat, blacked-out lines, the story (about chickens seeking water) changed her life. Growing up, she had a very active imagination; one of her best friends accused her of playing Barbies wrong when she turned Ken into a Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde mad scientist love interest. And her passion for stories led to her playing "pretend" longer than is socially acceptable.

Fawkes has a soft spot for fantasy and science fiction, but she appreciates anything well written. She has a passion for dissecting stories of all kinds and is known for digging deep into the craft.




During college, September C. Fawkes served as an editor and worked as a tutor at the Writing Center. She holds an English degree with honors. After graduation, she worked as an assistant for the New York Times best-selling author and writing instructor David Farland, for seven years. 

Now, she offers her own freelance editing services at FawkesEditing.com. She has edited for both award-winning and best-selling authors and has worked on manuscripts written for middle grade, young adult, and adult readers, and specializes in fantasy and science fiction.

She has been blogging writing tips on her site for over ten years and has written over 500 articles. She has won the Writer's Digest 101 Best Websites Award and Query Letter's Top Writing Blog Award. She has served as a writing coach on WritersHelpingWriters.net, and currently writes for MyStoryDoctor.com. Her writing tip articles have appeared on Grammar Girl and in classrooms. Yearly, she presents and panels at the FanX Comic Convention, the second largest comic convention in the world, and also teaches at writing conferences.

Most days, however, she hides out in her workspace, editing and writing. She is perpetually working on fantasy series, and enjoys helping writers take their manuscripts to the next level.

Some of her favorite things include, but are not limited to, Harry Potter, The Hunger Games, The X-Files, The Office, Spider-Man, Lord of the Rings, The Chronicles of Narnia, rock concerts, Muse, pugs, cherry blossoms, Ethel M. Chocolates, sushi, summer storms with thunder, and anything yellow. 

Online she works under the name "September C. Fawkes" for anonymity. (For those unfamiliar with the last name, "Fawkes" rhymes with "hawks.")


The Blog


I'll be honest. I started this blog for myself. I wanted to write down my thoughts about writing and everything to do with it, have it in an organized place where I could look it up through a search feature when I needed it, and figured I'd do it publicly for anyone who wants to come along for the ride. It doesn't hurt as an online home base for my career either.

Secondly, I did do this blog for you. I try to tailor my thoughts so that the general person can read and follow along, so it's not just a "note to self." I also take post suggestions and questions from friends and followers (though I admit, these days, it is becoming harder to follow up and answer them).

One of my top goals as a writer is to write fiction with intention and control (so by extension, one of the top purposes of this blog is to teach that to myself and others). This means bringing things we (or I) notice from the subconscious experience of reading and writing into the conscious part of the mind, learning how it functions, and gaining control over it so that we can give our readers an accurate story experience of what we intend. Some discovery writers may read that and say "This is not for me," but even discovery writing benefits from being conscious of story elements. In fact, being more conscious means you may have more elements you can discover. 

As with all writing tips and advice, take what rings true to you and feel free to leave the rest. Let my thoughts and opinions help you define your own as you agree or disagree with me. People learn and write in different ways, and no one has to do it the same way I do.

Blogging isn't a top priority in my life. I don't have time to make everything perfect. I'm editing others' manuscripts and writing a series myself. So you'll probably find typos from time to time or the occasional oddball sentence. Some people may be flabbergasted by this, especially from an editor, but hopefully they can see beyond it to the idea I'm trying to communicate (and remember the fact I'm only a rule-stickler when getting paid 😉). The idea is always more important than the typo.



Enough about me talking about me and my blog … want to hear others talking about me and my blog? 😉

7 comments:


  1. Hello! I wanted to ask you if you were interested in participating with #GoDoFly movement. Send me an email with the story you want to share, I ask you a few questions and up it goes. This is all quite new and I am on my way of getting more and more stories or even just powertalks. Since I love the way you write and spirit, you can be a perfect fit. Check out more on: www.thealwaysbeliever.com/godofly and on the webpage, under the #GoDoFly category for more info.
    Hope to hear from you!
    Thanks!
    Ariadna Arredondo

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  2. Hi. I find your blog very useful. Thank you for putting your thoughts out there.

    Pssst. You're missing a period in the third paragraph of The Blog.

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  3. I love your writing. So easy to understand and insightful. I will be reaching out soon for your editing services. I love all the works you listed above and just in case I want to mention the TV show Fringe in case it slipped under your radar. Such an under rated show. I just started watching it again with my son on HBO Max. Kind Regards, Steve F.

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    Replies
    1. Hi Steve,

      Thank you so much! And thank you for taking the time to write that and let me know. I have heard of Fringe! It is on my to-watch list. I need to get on that. Thanks for sharing.

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  4. Good blog. I'm amazed on how much I fail to break down the method in my reading and I read a lot.

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I love comments :)