Lost in contemplation...

I had a long discussion with dotar_sojat today which brought this quote to mind..."The American Dream. You find something that you love and then you twist it and torture it trying to find a way to make money at it. You can spend a lifetime doing that and at the end you can't find a trace of what you started out loving."

We were discussing making one's writing conform in order to make it publishable, and on what points one is willing to give in or not. I'm pretty flexible (hey, I'm the person who did 3 re-writes for a non-pro sale) but there are some things I just don't think I would change. This happens at times when a story is linked to something else and the over-arcing plot line might be damaged, or when a character's name is already in use in a published story (so you can't change it now), or there's a change requested that you just flat out won't do (possibly because it violates a character's principles or personality). Although I sometimes regret killing my babies*, I'm generally willing to do it after some reflection.

So, at what point do you stop twisting and torturing? I suppose that's the balance artists are always hunting for. I suspect that's the difference between writing, and writing for publication.
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*Note to parents: "Killing your babies" is just a writing phrase that means taking out a part you really love....but someone else doesn't.