|
02-20-2007, 06:48 AM | #1 |
The Chocoholic Sea Elf Administrator
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: N?n in Eilph (Belgium)
Posts: 14,363
|
Is a story sacred?
I see that a lot of people here intend to get their novels published. But what would you do if you finally found a willing publisher but he wants certain events in the book or even endings rewritten? It's not uncommon, I've heard.
What would you do? Do you consider a story, once written, completely finished and not to be changed? Or would you agree to rewriting and changing bits of your 'baby' if it meant getting published?
__________________
We are not things. |
02-20-2007, 12:05 PM | #2 |
Master of Orchestration President Emeritus of Entmoot 2004-2008
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Lost in the Opera House
Posts: 9,328
|
If the publisher could come up with specific details which you could agree might improve the work, then I'd consider it. But if they were just being general and couldn't come up with specific reasons on why you should change certain stuff, certainly I'd take my book somewhere else
Sometimes they just want to change the whole feel of the book to a more conventional one.
__________________
ACALEWIA- President of Entmoot hectorberlioz- Vice President of Entmoot Acaly und Hektor fur Presidants fur EntMut fur life! Join the discussion at Entmoot Election 2010. "Stupidissimo!"~Toscanini The Da CINDY Code The Epic Poem Of The Balrog of Entmoot: Here ~NEW! ~ Thinking of summer vacation? AboutNewJersey.com - NJ Travel & Tourism Guide Last edited by hectorberlioz : 02-20-2007 at 09:24 PM. |
02-20-2007, 01:30 PM | #3 |
Word Santa Claus
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 2,922
|
I think it depends on what sort of changes. I mean "change the main character to a woman, and have her die at the end" no, "have the climactic battle here and not here" maybe, "change that name because it might offend" yes, for example.
__________________
Sufficient to have stood, yet free to fall. |
02-20-2007, 10:19 PM | #4 |
Fenway Ranger, Lord of Red Sox Nation
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: College!
Posts: 1,976
|
Minor changes, possibly. If I haven't attached some significance to them, and if there's a good reason. Plot changes, I'm really not in support of. Especially because I spent a lot of effort fitting all of these threads together. But if they've got a better way of making a plot work, I suppose yes.
Character changes, probably out of the question. As well as major plot changes.
__________________
Adventure...betrayal...heroism... Atharon: where heroes are born. My wife once said to me—when I'd been writing for ten or fifteen years—that I could always go back to being a nuclear engineer. And I said to her, 'Harriet, would you let someone who quit his job to go write fantasy anywhere near your nuclear reactor? I wouldn't!' (Robert Jordan) |
02-23-2007, 03:41 PM | #5 | |
Dread Mothy Lord and Halfwitted Apprentice Loremaster
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Thomas Aquinas College, Santa Paula, CA
Posts: 10,820
|
Quote:
__________________
Crux fidelis, inter omnes arbor una nobilis. Nulla talem silva profert, fronde, flore, germine. Dulce lignum, dulce clavo, dulce pondus sustinens. 'With a melon?' - Eric Idle |
|
02-23-2007, 03:48 PM | #6 | |
Master of Orchestration President Emeritus of Entmoot 2004-2008
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Lost in the Opera House
Posts: 9,328
|
Quote:
__________________
ACALEWIA- President of Entmoot hectorberlioz- Vice President of Entmoot Acaly und Hektor fur Presidants fur EntMut fur life! Join the discussion at Entmoot Election 2010. "Stupidissimo!"~Toscanini The Da CINDY Code The Epic Poem Of The Balrog of Entmoot: Here ~NEW! ~ Thinking of summer vacation? AboutNewJersey.com - NJ Travel & Tourism Guide |
|
02-23-2007, 03:55 PM | #7 |
Dread Mothy Lord and Halfwitted Apprentice Loremaster
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Thomas Aquinas College, Santa Paula, CA
Posts: 10,820
|
Not that I ever will.
__________________
Crux fidelis, inter omnes arbor una nobilis. Nulla talem silva profert, fronde, flore, germine. Dulce lignum, dulce clavo, dulce pondus sustinens. 'With a melon?' - Eric Idle |
02-26-2007, 06:11 PM | #8 |
Halfelven Daughter of the Dunedain, President of Entmoot
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: In trouble. As usual.
Posts: 4,674
|
If it would better the story, yes. Change this or you won't be published. Off to see another publisher.
__________________
"Acaly und Hektor fur Presidants fur EntMut fur life!"~ inked Don't meddle in the affairs of Dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup. "Don't be such a sour wolf" Stiles ~ Heart Monitor http://www.wattpad.com/user/IceQueenofMitera |
02-26-2007, 10:39 PM | #9 |
Advocatus Diaboli
Join Date: Dec 2001
Location: Reality
Posts: 3,767
|
I think that it is always best to be open-minded about criticism. Ultimately, the decision is always up to the author as to what he/she wants to put on the paper, and the publisher as to what he/she wants to put on the bookshelf. So I think it would be better to work towards a middle ground.
My impression is most changes that would be required are of an editorial kind to improve the way a book might read, since not all good writers are also masters of the language, rather than complete thematic turnarounds. Typically, if the theme doesn't really fit a publisher, they are not likely to even consider it in the first place.
__________________
Your reality, sir, is lies and balderdash and I'm delighted to say that I have no grasp of it whatsoever. |
05-30-2007, 07:53 PM | #10 | |
Elf Lord
Join Date: Dec 2000
Location: Fountain Valley, CA
Posts: 6,343
|
Quote:
It's very sad to think about that kind of possible situation.
__________________
If the world has indeed, as I have said, been built of sorrow, it has been built by the hands of love, because in no other way could the soul of man, for whom the world was made, reach the full stature of its perfection. ~Oscar Wilde, written from prison Oscar Wilde's last words: "Either the wallpaper goes, or I do." |
|
06-06-2007, 07:31 PM | #11 |
Halfelven Daughter of the Dunedain, President of Entmoot
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: In trouble. As usual.
Posts: 4,674
|
Grammer wise, I'm willing to change. My grammer is not the best
__________________
"Acaly und Hektor fur Presidants fur EntMut fur life!"~ inked Don't meddle in the affairs of Dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup. "Don't be such a sour wolf" Stiles ~ Heart Monitor http://www.wattpad.com/user/IceQueenofMitera |
06-06-2007, 11:14 PM | #12 |
Advocatus Diaboli
Join Date: Dec 2001
Location: Reality
Posts: 3,767
|
It's grammar.
__________________
Your reality, sir, is lies and balderdash and I'm delighted to say that I have no grasp of it whatsoever. |
06-06-2007, 11:21 PM | #13 |
Advocatus Diaboli
Join Date: Dec 2001
Location: Reality
Posts: 3,767
|
Ultimately, I'd trust a publisher. The most incredible story ever written means very little if only a few hundred people read it. Publishers keep their jobs by getting people to read the stories they choose to publish, so I'd have to think that, unless you had some kind of name recognition to begin with, they wouldn't choose your story unless it's pretty darn good, and a few tweaks would be for the better.
I don't think it'd ever come to a major overhaul on a new, unknown writer, because they would not have choosen you unless they already thought your story was something a lot of people would enjoy.
__________________
Your reality, sir, is lies and balderdash and I'm delighted to say that I have no grasp of it whatsoever. |
Thread Tools | |
Display Modes | |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
Life of Pi | Elanor | General Literature | 13 | 06-24-2007 11:40 PM |
What makes a memorable story for you? | Elfmaster XK | Writer's Workshop | 2 | 01-10-2004 07:12 PM |
Vampire Story | Eruviel Greenleaf | Writer's Workshop | 13 | 08-06-2003 06:12 PM |
Is the Aragorn-Arwen love story important to the LOTR? | Black Breathalizer | Lord of the Rings Movies | 55 | 03-13-2003 03:02 PM |
New 3 Worder:)) | Tar-Elendil | Middle Earth | 2025 | 09-04-2002 02:28 PM |