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Wednesday 14 May 2008

How much help is too much?

I only managed 395 words words on my novel today as I have spent the best part of this evening looking over the editor's changes to my short story that I submitted for an anthology a while back. While I am happy with most of the changes that have been made I do wonder at what point I can no longer call it my story. A few minor omissions have been made to characters and dialogue. The northern dialect has been taken away, a history between two of the characters created and a slight change to the end. Whilst I am more than happy and agree with all changes (apart from the ending) I do fear that I would be agreeing to too much. Would it still be my story? I know the ideas, the characters and a fair bit of the original story are mine, but can I still agree to put my name to it without feeling like a fraud?
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2 comments:

  1. Calistro14 May 2008 at 15:22

    Of course you can, but never agree to anything you feel in your gut is wrong. When a literary journal recently wrote to accept one of my stories they said they loved it apart from the ending and did I have another ending in mind? They'd still publish the story, they said, but they'd love an new ending...

    I ummed and I ahhed and (because I'm such a people pleaser) I tried to think up a new ending - but I couldn't. I just couldn't. The ending was the right ending for my story, for me anyway. And they published it.

    Okay so one editor wasn't a big fan of the ending but that's not the end of the world. Hopefully at least some of the readers liked it!

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  2. Lily Sheehan15 May 2008 at 05:32

    Thanks Calistro - I have just finished my email to the editor and proposed my own changes to his changes. I really wasnt happy with his ending so I rewrote it again and I actually think its better than my first ending. Hopefully he will agree to it as I would rather remain unpublished than go with something I didnt like.

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