What would you do?

[j_cheney]

More tweaking...on the massive re-write. Rough in spots at the 'sentence level', so some line edits are coming my way.

I've already done a pretty big re-write to get this story to fit what this editor wants, so little line edits probably won't phaze me at all.

I'm always curious about working with editors on this kind of thing (as in, learning their editorial style). Some editors are likely to impose themselves on one's writing, others aren't. It doesn't really bother me as long as they don't cross the line.

Where is that line? For me, I suspect it would be:

a)where we had an instance of the "I'm going to make all your sentences simple (noun verb noun) enough for third graders." I hate it when people rewrite my sentences into third grade form. I'm not the Comma Queen for nothing! Or,

b)where they want to change something that would ruin the overall 'outside' story arc. By this I mean changing something that would affect a related novel--or in the case of a Dragon story, mess up the related short stories past redemption. And once the first story is published, some things will be set in stone.

What would you not be willing to change for an editor?

Comments

[tchernabyelo.livejournal.com]

You may be comma queen, but I am comma (and semi-colon) king! I recently had a story edited where a lot of my longer sentences were chopped up, and I have to day I didn't feel entirely comfortable with it. I asked for a couple to be changed back, just to get some semblance of rhythm back into the prose, but didn't feel it worth fighting over to any greater extent - perhaps because it was a reprint sale (and thus the "preferred" version of the story still exists and is available). That's only the second time I've had anything significant asked for in a rewrite; one other sale went through a minor back-and-forth. Oh, actually, thinking about it, there was a third one, where I was actually asked to change the end of a story. I found a way to keep the ending I wanted in principle while providing a more dramatic climax, so I was OK with doing that. And another editor pointed out I had too much "whiet room" dialogue in the heart of a story, so I brkoe that up a bit.

In general, it's noticeable that the "bigger" markets seem less inclined to fiddle with prose details, though obviously my sample size is pretty small. If an editor is pointing out ways to make a story stronger, I generally feel happy going with the changes, but where it's a matter of changing prose for what seems to be the editor's stylistic preference, I'm less happy. But I haven't really had occasion to dig my heels in yet.

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

it's noticeable that the "bigger" markets seem less inclined to fiddle with prose details...

I will say that the market that changed my ending up and rewrote part of the story was 'contributor copy only', the one that did multiple rewrites was token (but I really wanted to be in that issue, so I was happy to keep at it until I satisfied the editor), and the bigger markets have made pretty much no changes at all (maybe a word or two). The most recent bucks that trend, though, so perhaps it's all in my head.

It is hard when they want to re-write sentences. I've seen people do that in critique (Here's how I would have written your story.), and it's extremely irritating at times. I hope I don't get one of those, ever...

[jtglover.livejournal.com]

My line is subjective, but it's somewhere around the "let's turn this into a completely different story" fault line, transected by the "write this more like Robert Jordan/Anne Rice/William Gibson" meridian.

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

Anne Rice? ::shudders::

I have had the 'this should sound more like Poe' instruction before. I understood the reason for it, though, so I tried.

I failed to work in the words 'gibbering' and 'phantasm', which means that Poe-ness was not completely achieved.

The different story? Yeesh! Hasn't happened yet. ;o)

[jtglover.livejournal.com]

The only rewrite request I've gotten thus far was a length issue. The same editor said there would be some changes, so I'm gamely waiting to find out what my story will be like when published. :)

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

::fingers crossed you like it::

[tlmorganfield.livejournal.com]

I once turned down doing a rewrite because I thought the change the editor wanted would completely screw with character nuances and would in essence make the story I wanted to tell completely fall apart. It seemed like a rather minor detail at the time when ask me to change it and I said I would, but the more I tried to think of alternatives, the more I realized I couldn't change this particular aspect without considerably altering the story itself. After consulting with a few trusted readers and asking them if they'd had believability issues with this aspect like the editor had and was told they'd had no issues, I decided I didn't want to change it and wrote the editor back and explained my reasons for not wanting to make the change. I knew he'd reject the story for it, but he was nice about it and we parted ways with no hard feelings.

I've had editors line edit my stuff to a point I wasn't entirely comfortable with what they'd done, but decided it wasn't worth haggling about. I was miffed when one magazine undid all my capitalized pronouns for the Aztec gods but decided that too wasn't worth quarreling about (it was a Christian magazine and so I understood why they did it, but it seemed a bit reactionary to me, since the pronouns were used in dialog and the characters would have extended that particular reverence to their gods. I changed them all back when I submitted it to Anthology Builder though.).

[camillealexa.livejournal.com]

I've had editors line edit my stuff to a point I wasn't entirely comfortable with what they'd done, but decided it wasn't worth haggling about.

That's usually the case for me, too.

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

That's sort of what I thought, too. I know why the editors are doing it, and it's their magazine/anthology so if I don't like it, I'll have to take my toys and go home...

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

Ah, the creative control of AnthologyBuilder!

I do think I had one thing edited more than I wanted once, but it was flash, so I didn't quibble. As you said, wasn't worth haggling about...

[musingaloud.livejournal.com]

I've only had one editor suggest changes, and that was for line edits that I thought were good changes. But I haven't had all that many sales, truth be told. At this point, I doubt I'd quibble over any changes, unless they affected the story so much that I didn't see a way to make the changes happen--unless they gave me a lot of direction. (As in, I want you to have this character say "blah blah" at this point and then the ending should be ----.) Sometimes it's hard enough for me to finish my own plotline, let alone try to finish someone else's!

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

Changing the ending is....sticky....
(BTW, I have done it)

[st-jb.livejournal.com]

Most editors I've worked with have been open to discussion. But when you're dealing with house style, you may be stuck. I've seen writers with big houses state similar things.

I've only dug in my heels once, but it was because I was right. It was over the spelling of a word, of all things. Medical terms can be such fun! Not at all.

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

I would think that spelling would be a no-go also. However, I have had it come up twice.

With one editor I gave in. The editor wanted to change spellings of place names to match their modern versions (so Fidji became Fiji, Sidney became Sydney). I could understand that editor's reasoning. (Not wanting to throw the reader out of the story)

For the same reason, I did say I would capitulate on a recent spelling, even though mine was correct for the story (an archaic spelling that is still used today). But when I explained that, the editor said "Oh, really? OK, we'll leave it." (paraphrased).

Medical terminology? If you leave that misspelled, you'll just look dumb, so yeah, I understand completely.

[melissajm.livejournal.com]

I've been asked for drastic cuts, and been happy with the results. Once I was asked to take out what I thought was a major point of the story. I was less happy with that result.
Overall, I'm pretty willing to do major cosmetic changes, but I've gotten wary of changing the Who, What or Why of a story.

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

Sounds good...

[ckastens.livejournal.com]

What would you not be willing to change for an editor?

How much are they paying? :)

I'm used to receiving lots of critiques on stories, and changing them based on those (sometimes radically), so I don't usually shy away from rewrite requests.

That being said, I wouldn't change a character that was important to me or a theme I thought was absolutely critical to the story.

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

I do understand. I have a story with some references to the Russian Orthodox church (in 1200, which essentially just makes it the Byzantine church, slightly adapted for Russia) and I REALLY don't want to take them out because I think they balance the story.

I may do it eventually, though...