obviously, being unwell doesn’t agree with my sunny disposition; no gerbils were harmed in the writing of this piece
When an author, you know, actually sits down and finishes a piece of work, and spends the best part of six weeks editing, re-editing, re-re-editing, re-re-re-editing, re-re-re-re-editing and then doing even further editing, and then tarts it all up and writes an accompanying killer synopsis and bundles the whole thing up and sends it off to one’s agent, one has a set of expectations.
But one doesn’t expect the first publisher who has a good, long, hard look at it, to suggest a rewrite to the extent that the genders of the two leading characters are reversed.
I mean, if the point of the novel is to tell a story from the perspective of Character A who, for the sake of illustration, we’ll call a female gerbil, what the hell is the point of the publisher saying they’d like to see it rewritten so the story is as told from the perspective of Character B, a male gerbil?
That’s the whole reason for the story you dozy twonks.
The point is that this particular story is told from the perspective of the female gerbil.
Give me strength.
I need a mug of tea and I need it stat!
I got a 9 out of 20 for my high-school graduation exam in French lit. It was about the most catastrophic that had happened to me so far so my parents and I asked to see my graded test. From the comments on it, my only major mistake was to have discussed Aspect A of the text I was commenting on before Aspect B, rather than the other way around.
Hmm, wait, I’m sure I had a point.
Oh, yes, I meant to say the world is full of assholes.
At least you’ve finished a novel. I’m not much past the first chapter on mine! Have a nice cuppa laced with a nice whiskey and have a laugh. Then just do the bloody re-write and get it published! Congrats!
Krazy Kitty: The world is, indeed, full of arseholes. Present company excepted, natch.
S. Le: Small point, this is my second, first one was published in 2005. 🙂
A novel about gerbils? Bit of a niche market I would have thought. 😉
Masher: Not so much a niche, more of a crack. No Hollywood actors called Gear or something that sounds similar were referenced in this comment.