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

[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)