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| Love the cat. |
I checked Half Magic out and brought it home. I love, love, loved the story and never forgot that book. Years passed and I did eventually forget the title. That really bothered me because I wanted to revisit those characters and I didn't know how to find them. One day, I found Half Magic at BN completely by chance, and literally 30 years later. It was like finding an old friend. Without hesitation I bought the book and read it that very night. And guess what? I loved it all over again.
After my initial discovery of Half Magic, my reading list grew. Thanks in large to my mother and my big sister (for gifting so many books to me), I read entire series' by Piers Anthony, C.S. Lewis and Madeleine L'Engle. I enjoyed them just as much as I did Half Magic. Later, I realized my many favorites had one common component. The Fantasy Genre = My Love x Infinity. I'm not exaggerating when I say Half Magic influenced me as a writer. Thanks to all the amazing stories I read as a kid, I enjoy writing children's fantasy to this day.
Recently, I co-wrote a book with my brother, Patrick Tremblay. We came up with the plot together, we broke the scenes down into chapters and when we were ready to write, we decided who would write and who would edit. We watched for consistency (since we each have unique writing styles) and after several months, we finished the book. Yay! We'd each written short stories on our own, but this new book was our first 65,000 word NOVEL! (Insert high-five here). It was finished and we called it Horrific Tales of Woodland Manor (The Light in the Window).
It just so happens I had re-joined the SCBWI so I started bringing our chapters to my local critique group. For the most part everyone liked the premise, and they were very complimentary and supportive. I got amazing feedback which helped with the editing process. I happen to like my critique group very much but there was one critique in particular that inspired this post.
One of the women in the group (a person I respect very much as a writer, plus she knows a lot about the publishing industry) told me that I should consider re-writing the book in a different POV. My response was... Say what, now? Apparently, since Horrific Tales was written in third person omniscient, it needed to be fixed. I was told that third person omniscient was considered old-fashioned and furthermore, the last good book written in dreaded omni was the Lemony Snicket series (and that's because it was written really well). Ouch!
But again, I respect this girl a lot so I said I would do it. I decided (with her help and advice) to re-write Horrific Tales in third person limited. I met with my co-writer in crime and we discussed. After some deliberation, Patrick said he would support the change if I thought it would make the book better. So I sat down at my computer and re-wrote exactly four paragraphs. It took me over an hour. I couldn't do it. I felt like a sham. I felt like screaming. And I felt like I was ruining our book. I turned my computer off and went for a run to blow off some steam... and to think.
Well, my run/thinking of reasons for drastically changing our book lasted 35 minutes. I'll give you the reader's digest condensed version of what I came up with: F. That.
I started thinking about the beloved books I grew up on. (You know, the old-fashioned ones). I've re-read a couple of them recently and never said, "Hm... that book would have been soooo much better if it had been written in first person point of view." If its a good book, its a good book, regardless of POV. Don't get me wrong, there are valid arguments out there about the proper uses of POV but I'm not the one to jump into that ring. Instead, I thought about the advice I was given in my critique group about Horrific Tales. My friend's intentions were good. And she knows what she's talking about when she says what traditional publishers want these days. I totally get that, but that's where I have to stop and ask... WHO exactly are these people making these rules and dictating how I should write?
I've read a lot of books on writing and publishing (at least 25 years of research) and I remember when writing in first person was not the preferred method. Now, it seems that's all anybody writes. And even though times change, those fifty year old books written in third person omniscient are still great stories. These days, most of our classics have been made into movies, and recently, special 50 year anniversary editions have been published. I doubt any of them would be re-written in today's "preferred" POV. Afterall, that would ruin a perfectly good book. Can you tell what I'm going to say next?
If you haven't already guessed, Horrific Tales was not re-written to accommodate the current trends in traditional publishing. The clincher was when an editor we know said, "If you change the POV it changes everything about the story and it won't be the same." I can't tell you how much weight that editor lifted off my shoulders. This is not to say my brother and I will never write in first person, or third person limited. If first person fits, it fits and we will write the story the way it needs to be written. But my brother and I happen to LOVE our new book and we didn't want to lose much of its characteristics by cutting a lot of it out in order to re-funnel thoughts and feelings into one character's perspective.
Sorry, traditional publishers! We are indie writers and we decided to make our own executive decision on this one. We are quite proud of Horrific Tales of Woodland Manor and its potential. We have sequels to write and we will continue to tip our hat to our favorite authors by writing stories the same way they wrote their stories, old-fashioned or not.
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| Book One of the Series |
Amanda Tremblay is the co-founder of Rattledash Media LLC.
