Poisoned!

[my_daroga]

Guys, I don't know if I can write first-person Erik without it coming out like Susan Kay. Despite not having read the novel in at least ten years. I think I've been permanently tainted.

I just don't know what to do.

Comments

[laughingrat]

Hm, I never knew someone had tried that and got published. I guess I should have known, but hey. It does sound like an interesting exercise, I say try it anyway. ;)

[my_daroga]

Yeah, Phantom by Susan Kay was published in the late 80s, and is/was very popular amongst fangirls for its unflinching portrayal of Erik as a sexy badass. Which... yeah, I totally went for when I was 14. And sort of do still, in my heart. Since Leroux was in the public domain, it wasn't an issue. It's like people doing new Sherlock Holmes stories. It happens all the time.

The issue here (which I didn't explain) is that I'm hoping to edit a 50,000 word thing I wrote in 2004 but I'm daunted by the fact that I wrote it in the first person. And I'm afraid that whatever I do, making that character make sense + putting it from that pov is going to sound like Kay. Which wouldn't be a huge deal, as I'm just thinking of posting it as fic anyway, but large segments of the fandom are not into Kay at all and I happen to be friends with lots of them.

Hence my discomfort.