The editor is your friend
Jul. 6th, 2026 09:34 pm It occurred to me after the recent binge on Blake's 7 fanac that I should Do Something about getting more of my old zine-published fic online, this being a project that was brought to an abrupt halt a dozen years ago by one of the many unpleasant ways in which my body has failed me. So at the weekend I went looking for the old files, hoping that I would actually find them in a usable format because the earliest ones date back to Lotus AmiPro, never mind Lotus WorPro.
It turned out I did have the submission file of the very first fanfic I ever wrote, and it was a .txt file. I read it. I thought, "Why on earth did![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
watervole publish this?" The answer, of course, is that she didn't. The .txt file is what I initially sent her as a submission. What appeared in the zine is the version I sent her after she'd explained how to improve it.
Unfortunately I can't find the file for the published version (and will have to beg her to see if she still has it on an ancient machine or mailspool somewhere). And I am *not* going to put the first draft out in public. There is a reason why Dolphin Dreams is dedicated to her and to my editor at Loose Id, Raven McKnight. As I said there, editors are good people. They make your stories better.
It turned out I did have the submission file of the very first fanfic I ever wrote, and it was a .txt file. I read it. I thought, "Why on earth did
watervole publish this?" The answer, of course, is that she didn't. The .txt file is what I initially sent her as a submission. What appeared in the zine is the version I sent her after she'd explained how to improve it.Unfortunately I can't find the file for the published version (and will have to beg her to see if she still has it on an ancient machine or mailspool somewhere). And I am *not* going to put the first draft out in public. There is a reason why Dolphin Dreams is dedicated to her and to my editor at Loose Id, Raven McKnight. As I said there, editors are good people. They make your stories better.
