Filing the serial numbers off

[emeraldsedai]

The biggest difference, I'm finding, between a novel-length fanfic and a publishable novel isn't that you have to change the characters' names and give them different haircolors (though there is that).

The biggest difference is that you're writing for strangers.

Comments

[roxymissrose]

Ha--I was just hit with the most ridiculous sense of grief for those two in the original story. I know, I know--it's silly because they'll always be there.

I knew making it publishable for pro fiction had to be a lot of work, but yes, this is a *LOT* of work. I can see it having to be darker but I don't know if I can handle much darker! And I can see that they'd be less noble--because now they are real people as opposed to Real People.

One of them has red hair...I'm thinking there was a pic included but I'm seeing nothing! Also having too easy a time seeing either one of them with red hair, for various reasons that probably still connect too strongly to fandom, lol!

♥ Nice to see you this fine...*koff* afternoon, which I'm trying to pretend is morning. *sips first coffee of the day*

[emeraldsedai]

Howdy! The picture is restored (I think--very frustrating change in Google photos that seems to have cut off the embed/share function. Grrr

[karen_jk]

I don't see why it can't be a romance...the love the two felt is the reason the original ending was so powerful.

John's vulnerability in his love and his ultimate strength and resilience were among the things that carried me through the story. I'll miss those if they are gone, but it's your story and you get to change it the way you think is best.

[emeraldsedai]

Oh, don't get me wrong! The romance in the story is still intact and will never change. Never never never. Everything you say about John is there and unaltered. Tristan's arc doesn't change, either. The love, the warmth, the vulnerability, the passion--none of that is changing.

But my book breaks the cardinal rule of "Romance" as a publishing category: the happy ending, typically while the lovers are in the prime of life, facing their happy-ever-after future together. Romance readers will hate me and hate my novel if it's sold to them as a romance, because my book breaks that rule.

But if it's sold as a romantic historical social drama, well, romance readers might not buy it, but people who do will have a clearer idea of what to expect.

Maybe you remember the original cover art: the stormy sky, the looming cathedral, the black steed...? That's the sort of "coding" I want to be sure stays with the book.