Chapter 3 and counting...

[ksmith]

I eschew dialogue tags whenever possible. I feel that more often then not, they're unnecessary.

Apparently not everyone feels that way.

Comments

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

I'm not even trying to confuse anybody.

"Go home." Jani grabbed Lucien's brimmed lid and flung it over the balcony rail. "See if you can beat that to the ground floor."

versus

"Go home," Jani said, grabbing Lucien's brimmed lid and flinging it over the balcony rail. "See if you can beat that to the ground floor."

I prefer the former. Some prefer the latter, and alter my text to suit without querying first.

[daveamongus.livejournal.com]

Huh. That does puzzle.

Are you excising them again?

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

Have you met Bucky?

[barbarienne.livejournal.com]

That is...well, let's just say, that's stupid. A copyeditor did this to your latest?

You want I should rat them out to the managing editor?

(...she said, in her best 1920s gangster voice.)

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

The above is actually a made-up example. Below is an actual example--at this point in the scene, it's obvious that Jani and Lucien are the only two people in the room:

My version:

She waited until the doors closed and the two had disappeared from view. "What did you do to Val?"

"Nothing he didn't ask me to." Lucien swirled the scant remains of his brandy.

CE version:

She waited until the doors closed and the two had disappeared from view. "What did you do to Val?" she asked Lucien.

"Nothing he didn't ask me to." Lucien swirled the scant remains of his brandy.


Me again--I have emailed my editor's assistant. Nothing yet, but maybe I should wait until I hear.

It's just that I also had this CE for the last book. They dislike some of my made-up words, and keep trying to change them even though I've used these words throughout the series. My editor emailed about this last month, and I asked to please leave all made-up words and Anglicisms alone. This was not done.

I am...ticked off.


I should add there there have been a couple of instances where CE requested clarification, and clarification proved to be needed. But those instances are outweighed by stuff like this, and the fact that they went ahead and changed things that had already been queried and that I asked to be left alone.