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Read through a story you just got back from a womag to see how it can be improved, then discovered, to your horror, that it's totally BORING!
I had a story, written for a comp, which I decided would be okay to re-write trying to 'fit' the criteria for a womag. The story was quite immoral, so I had to change that bit, change one of the characters, change the beginning and the ending to make it suitable for submission to the chosen market.
It was rejected. Reading it through after rejection I found loads of waffle, unnecessary explanation and far too much telling instead of showing. I was so horrified that I went back to the original story.
Guess what - it was shorter, snappier, funnier and much better written. The moral of this story is: It is possible to make a sow's ear out of a silk purse, you just have to try to make it fit where it doesn't.
Has anyone else had this problem?
Comments
Just the way it goes. Sometimes the original is better, in which case, find a market to fit the story, rather than butchering your story to fit the market. Sometimes the original is so shocking that anything would be an improvement, in which case, butcher to your little heart's content!! :D
*SA*
Quote: "Your friend's a nice kid," Stacy, who'd worked out that Josh was an 'ex', said to Josh. End quote.
I managed to get it changed before the print-on-demand was finally finalised.
But that's another problem. I've been editing and re-organising my novel for so long now that I'm worried it might be utterly boring and unintelligible, lacking any original lustre and zing.
So that must be where the professional editing service comes in (at £400 - £500!).
I do try to make mine go the other way: I want the silk purse as the end result, not the sow's ear. Sometimes overediting can produce the sow's ear ...
... but usually everything is improved by a merciless edit.
PS I need to go and edit the roses, there are a lot of long suckers with no flowers on ...