(no subject)

[feuervogel]

Have you ever gotten edits back from someone and been like "Nope, that's not my voice, I'm not changing it"?

Comments

[feuervogel]

It's very much "change this to the way I would write it," which I don't agree with, and she's excising commas left and right. She also lowercased a German noun.

Also, she wants me to change my favorite paragraph which nope

[legionseagle]

I'm never a fan of edits which come in the form of rewrites; I've just been discussing this in another place with a friend. An editor can, beneficially, point to areas that need changing or excising (and can deal with spelling and grammar issues, on which there can sometimes be two opinions but generally only one right answer) but a rewrite on stylistic grounds does, as you say, substitute the editor's voice for yours.

[feuervogel]

I have 3 sets of comments on this draft to sort through and see where a majority agree, then decide whether I agree that they have a point.

Though everyone says they really like the story, which is good.

[art-ungulate.livejournal.com]

Yes, which is why I only change things when either 1) I agree with the critique or 2) lots of critiquers point out the same thing. Even then, I might balk if the change wouldn't match the voice of the piece. Critiquing is only a tool for getting outside one's own head.

[feuervogel]

Yeah; a lot of these comments are to vary the sentence structure (which, ok, maybe sometimes she has a point) but I started with the sentence inverted on purpose (for example). Yes, I *want* that predicate there at the head, thanks. No, your voice isn't my voice, and it's not the voice of this piece, so I'm not going to change that.

[kurai-seraphim.livejournal.com]

I generally take edits as suggestions rather than instructions. They force me to admit mistakes or defend my writing. In either case, my writing comes out stronger. I won't make all suggested changes but I'll certainly make myself consider why I'm making deviations and what these deviations say about my style. The general rule I picked up back in film class is that a master can break the rules only because they've weighed the benefits of transgression and have thick enough skin to bear the consequences if they fail.

[feuervogel]

The edits this person made aren't even deviations! They're perfectly cromulent grammatically. Just because she doesn't like the predicate leading, or thinks that German nouns should be decapitalized, doesn't mean it's wrong.

I'm going to post some example changes, I think.