As I hope to present a unique style to the world, as I am not especially tolerant of being told I'm doing things "wrong" when that's a subjective statement related to writing style, and as I've never been published, I'd like to understand what to expect from my first publisher-required editor cycle.
How much leeway are they going to allow for me to be an original author... not just in the content of the ideas, but in how I structure the language in which it's presented?
Some example sentences attempting to illustrate my point (exhaustive listing not possible):
- It was a cold night, frigidly so.
- "That wasn't the issue at all," she said. Vehemently.
- The wind threw itself down from the mountains at us; the howl was immense, deafening.
What I really care about is what readers think, not a close-minded editor. Maybe I'm full of prejudice as well as vim and vigor. Am I off base that they will think they know best and ask me to bend to their will?
Answer
A lot of the time it comes down to one thing: consistency.
If your whole text is made of sentences like this, then it can be seen as your style. If you pepper your text with just a few of these, they will be more likely to become an editor's target, and reasonably so.
Make sure you differentiate between actual style and just doing something because, "you know, that sentence is so cool that way."
I am usually a fan of the former and see the latter as lame showing off.
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