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Reader's Paradise

Which book would you have liked to write?

6 years ago

I don't mean the most beautiful book you have read, but the most intriguing, or peculiar on,e in a way. For me it’s “Watership Down” by Richard Adams. There are so many meanings in it, but for me, it's the adventure novel that I woul have liked to write when I was ten, twelve years old.

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Comments (5)

carolyn_ky
6 years ago
I would like to have written Hannah Fowler by Janice Holt Giles. I have read it several times. Ms. Giles was a Kentucky author, and I'm a Kentucky girl, but the book just speaks to me. My mother preferred her book The Believers to the point that when she finished it, she turned back to the beginning and read it straight through again.
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annpanagain
6 years ago
I mentally write continuations of a story I liked. This started when I was about ten and actually wrote a composition at school "What happened to Cinderella after the Ball." which was rather a Grimm tale of her married life and more dark doings by the Ugly Sisters!

I have a continuation of Heyer's "Penhallow" on the go now! Sort of a Book at Bedtime to send me off to sleep.
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Publishing is not an easy task unless you decide to use a vanity press. But aside from the travails of the publishing world....I would suggest that you first actually compile the book. I don't mean this as negative advice but more a reality check. It takes constant personal discipline to produce a tome of any size. Carving out time in each day...or whatever writing schedule you chose...demands that you actually sit down and write during that time period. The first few hours...maybe even days...it seems an easy task but as experience has taught me...it can become a demanding uphill battle at some point in the process. Complete the book. Compile and categorize the illustrations. Create a complete package. Decide what you're willing to sacrifice in the impersonal editing process. And then start the journey of looking for an agent and a publisher. Look for current editions of "Novel & Short Story Writer's Market" and "Writer's Market" They're sold on line as well as in most large book stores. They're excellent informational/tool sources for answers to all your questions. Most of all...good luck. It's a sometimes daunting task but a very rewarding one if you're truly motivated and stick to it. I've been down this road and I can say with a certainty that the first time you see your name in print you'll forget all about the rocky road it took to get it there. But...I can't guarantee you that it'll be easy. It's not. Not by a long shot.
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vee_new
6 years ago
At a very practical and mercenary level I would have liked to have written books that brought me shed-loads of money as has happened with J K Rowling or maybe the late Enid Blyton. I'm sure JKR puts quite an effort into her work, but Blyton could churn out a children's book (probably one of her 'Famous Five series) in an afternoon, sitting with her portable typewriter balanced on her knees. And talking of balance I think she had a very healthy bank-balance.

I realise this is not a worthy suggestion and I could never write a deep and meaningful novel only to be appreciated by some obscure critics writing for the Guardian book reviews. So it would have to be something that just 'hit the spot' of the moment, a book that got away from mean-spirited politics, woke generation "I know what's best/don't disagree with me" Not a book with a forced joke on every page, but something that lightens the spirit and makes the days brighter.
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annpanagain
6 years ago
Vee, I agree with the money making side.

I was going to try to write a Mills and Boon romance when I was a teenager. I believe they paid well and were very popular with our library subscribers. Easier said than done! I had very little life experience then so would have copied other authors.

I sent in a plot to a publisher who was advertising for them to use in graphic story books. It was refused but I saw something very similar later. I have always wondered...
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Rosefolly z5
6 years ago
Long, long ago, before the current trend in re-writing fairy tales as fantasy novels, Robin McKinley wrote her early novel Beauty, based on "Beauty and the Beast". To the best of my knowledge then and now, no one else had ever done anything like it up to that point. I was bowled over. It is still one of the best examples of the sub-genre. I remember thinking that I very much wish I had written it. In fact, it felt like I had written it. While I have not liked her recent books, and have pretty much stopped reading what she writes these days, this one remains a favorite.
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