What would you do?
Jul. 30th, 2008 08:20 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
j_cheneyMore 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?
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?
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no subject
Date: 2008-07-30 08:30 pm (UTC)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.