Thursday, 13 March 2008
Playing Editor
How about a chance to play editor-in-chief? Fill in the blanks:
__________ would have been a much better book if ______________________.
Many books leave me wanting a different ending for the characters. The one that comes to mind is The Amber Spyglass, I sobbed my heart out at the end. But would I change it and keep Will and Lyra together? I don’t think I would. The book would lose a lot if you changed the end. I read a blog post the other day about love lost and completely agreed with it especially this line;
“In the end, maybe it’s the longing for the love that can never be that touches readers more than the acquisition of that love”.
I wouldn’t change any book I had read and enjoyed. I might wish it different, I might rage against the author but I wouldn’t change it because it would change the story and it’s the story that I love.
Having said that there are a few books that could have used a heavy dose of editing the last three Harry Potter books and Diana Gabaldon to name a few.
Yes, I agree with you about ‘The Amber Spyglass’. However hard it might have been to accept the ending, I do think it had to be. In fact, I’ve had to re-read the book several times for students doing dissertations and the more I get to know it the more certain I am.
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I agree with you completely, I’ve never wanted to change a book that I’ve really enjoyed. But I’ve often wanted to strip out lazy writing and dreary descriptions…we need more editors to kick arse I reckon!!!
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Well, I have an easy solution, I simply skip pages which tend to get boring!
😀
Here is my BTT post!
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I also skip or just skim through boring pages – life’s too short! 😉
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Most of the books I most want to change are those where the author has the characters behave in an out-of-character manner just to achieve some story goal such as an opening for a follow-on or a certain ending.
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as for The Amber Spyglass – there i was, too, crying my heart out..
and i would agree with you on the idea of love lost being more appealing to the reader. whether it is true that one learns something about it, i guess everyone discovers for themselves..
let me share one of my other ideas ) speaking of The Amber Spyglass again and not love lost, the very nd left me disappointed a bit. i would have never expected Lyra to have grown mentally in that manner and calmed down so easily as the book delivered it. a child so wild to become a wise adult.. well i CAN buy that save that it leaves an aftertaste that i don’t especially enjoy.
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The Amber Spyglass … I so wanted Will and Lyra to be together, because they were so perfect for each other, and had been through so much. But I think that ending is the right one.
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The only book I can think of off the top of my head reading and saying “Oh, I this had happened instead!” is Maeve Binchy’s Circle of Friends. I really wanted her to get back with the boyfriend (what was his name??) and in the movie she did. For ages I liked the movie more, just because of the ending. Now, I’m thinking she was way ahead of the time in not taking him back.
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