Let’s say you wrote a…

Let's say you wrote a story that was very thinly disguised autobiography and you used your ex-boyfriend's real first name and at the time you wrote it you were mad at him and said some mean things in the story that you mostly disagree with twenty years later -- there's not much you can do about the original story. What's done is done, and twenty-year-old you was pretty mad and maybe not so clear on appropriate boundaries for "fiction."

But if you're reissuing it in an ebook, is it kosher to, I don't know, either change the name or take out the mean bits? Or both? I am feeling the urge to correct the record. Also, while I'm here, sorry, ex-boyfriend! (I am not naming you by name 'cause I kind of figure that should be up to you at this point.)

2 thoughts on “Let’s say you wrote a…”

  1. I’d say change the name just as you would fix typos, note the change if you want, and keep all the mean bits. That seems to fit your goal of reissuing without revising.

  2. If you really feel you were too mean and that meanness isn’t crucial to your story, t hen I think you should revise. You can add a forward or author’s note, saying what you did and why.

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