Books you wish you had written

[serria]

Here's a little ice-breaker: what existing book do you wish you had written? Whether it's because the story really resonated with you or because the book was similar to your own style in terms or writing or themes, is there any book out there that you wish had your name on it?

For me, my favorite genre is fantasy, and I absolutely love elves, dragons, and other fantasy elements that have been done a million times now. In that regard, it's tough not to be a little jealous of Tolkien. His stuff isn't even my favorite in the fantasy genre, but I'd love to be on record for "revolutionizing" a genre, or establishing elements that would later become tropes.

Comments

[lunabee34]

This is a great opening topic. :)

I wish I had written Lady Audley's Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon. It's a Victorian novel whose basic plot (so many subthreads LOL) is that a woman's husband essentially abandons her to go to Australia to try and make his fortune. She assumes another identity in order to marry someone wealthy; her husband returns to England, and she's got to keep him from realizing who she is. Spoiler alert: she is not so successful. LOL

It's melodramatic without being ridiculous which I admire highly. As a reader, I love melodrama. I love highly emotional stories and angst and sudden plot twists. I think the Victorians really did melodrama best because they're so endearingly earnest about all the characters faking their deaths or secretly squirreling away illegitimate children or whatever the convoluted plot is. And the language is beautiful; Braddon can turn a phrase so beautifully.

There's some disconnect for me where I just don't seem to be able to write the kinds of stories I most want to read, the ones that really scratch my id. IDK if that's a problem other people have.

[serria]

I just realized that "what book do you wish you'd written" is going to become a "recommend me a book!" topic, because now I really want to read Lady Audley's Secret. :D I love reading a beautiful narrative, though it's hard for me to write - I always worry that I fall into purple prose when I try.

I try to write things I get excited about, but I always wonder if I'd actually enjoy reading the things I write. If I forget about some writing file I worked on for a couple of months (years, etc) and try to read it with a more fresh mind, it's usually pretty hit or miss. But I've surprisingly liked some of my old stuff more than I did when I was writing it, so there's that.

[lunabee34]

I'm always looking for a Braddon convert! :)

I feel like the Victorians can get away with being a bit purple in their prose because that's what we expect from them in large part. But the writing is often so very, very lush in a way that we don't allow ourselves to write now. I know my writing tends to be much more spare.

I do write things I'd enjoy reading, but not the things I'd *most* enjoy reading if that makes sense. I have a really really hard time pulling off the dramatical angsty that characterizes my favorite kind of story.

[serria]

I guess it's one of those stylistic things that changes with the fashion. Writing classes these days, in my scant experience, seem to encourage writers to be bare and not too descriptive, I suppose to let the story speak for itself. There is certainly a line for what kind of flowery narrative works by being genuine instead of cheesy and overdone, but I like pretty words and metaphors (things that are pretty much discouraged now).

Haha, I can understand that - I like reading really clever things with snappy dialogue and insane plot twists, but coming up with that myself is much more difficult. I also find that when I'm writing, I'm more afraid to take risks with the story, and can end up writing pretty cautiously, if that makes sense... which makes it not as dramatic as I'd personally like to read. It's hard to really say for certain, though.

[lunabee34]

That totally makes sense. I end up being a pretty cautious writer myself. :)

I think you're right about the current trend in prose writing. It's all Hemingway instead of Dickens. I teach writing, so I do think there's something to be said for clarity and simplicity. A lot of my students overwrite in a convoluted, confusing, and ridiculous way LOL that doesn't work. However, I love a beautiful turn of phrase or a delicious description and I feel like that's not encouraged now.

[sarillia]

I miss the way people were allowed to write in the Victorian period too. I think these days people worry too much about excessive description when really the focus should be on whether or not the description is actually good, no matter how much of it is there.

[lunabee34]

We are in complete agreement. There's a reason I specialized in Victorian lit. LOL George Eliot is a master. So is Dickens. Or Wilde. And their writing can hardly be called spare.

[sarillia]

I have yet to read one of Eliot's books. Do you have any in particular that you would recommend?

[lunabee34]

Yes!

Middlemarch is the classic Eliot and it is so so good. I snuggle it to my heart and name it George. LOL It's also pretty epic.

Adam Bede is also amazing. It's shorter than Middlemarch, and also waaaaaaaaaaay angsty. it's pretty similar to Tess of the D'Urbervilles in theme with lots of class issues.

[badass_tiger]

Not really a book, but I just found out about the Not Actually The Ultimate Question trope and now I wish I'd been the one to make that trope popular. I love that it's something like an inverted trope in itself, and it always sets up hilariously.

I remember that as a child I was always jealous of Lemony Snicket's writing style. I loved the whole 'a word which here means ...' thing. Plus, it's so simple but it's engaging and funny without taking away from the dark moments at the same time. I've read his latest book, When Did You See Her Last? He's still as good as my childhood memories remember him to be!

[serria]

Haha, I'd never heard of that trope name before, but that is certainly always an awesome exchange. And I just found out, from your comment and Google, that Lemony Snicket was the author's pen name in addition to being a character... whoops. I read several of the Unfortunate Events books when I was a kid, their whimsical darkness was oddly engaging.

[badass_tiger]

That's right, he writes from the POV of one of the minor characters in A Series of Unfortunate Events! His current series, All The Wrong Questions, is about Snicket's backstory, and is a sort of prequel to ASOUE. ASOUE is one of my favourite series and I'm really happy that he's continuing to write for it.

[lunabee34]

My daughter recently finished that series and loved it (although not so much the ending).

I love books that are "educational" for whatever value of educational without overtly being so.

[badass_tiger]

Haha, nobody enjoys the ending of the series. That was the whole point. In real life, endings don't leave you feeling all warm inside and people rarely die knowing everything they set out to find out about. I didn't enjoy the ending, but I most certainly liked it.

[sarillia]

I actually did enjoy the ending. But I have weird tastes when it comes to that sort of thing.

[lunabee34]

Ah, okay. I didn't read them along with her, just parts of them when she wanted me to read out loud to her before bed. I think Ems does not yet appreciate ambiguity. LOL She is very much a happy endings kind of girl.

[siofrabunnies]

That's such a difficult question to answer!

I'll say I'm very jealous of Douglas Adams' writing style. HHGG is one of my favorite book series, and I catch something new each time I read it. There are other authors that do the same thing, but I think Adams did it best. I particularly like the idea that the story isn't about the characters, but about the Guide itself, which lets the action and dialog be a lot more natural, at least as natural as a sci-fi novel can be.

[serria]

You know, I haven't read HHGG, but I've no idea why not - it's definitely something I'm sure I'd enjoy, plus it's got such a following. Something else I need to put on my Kindle! There aren't a lot of books I reread, not when my to-read list is so long, but some books really do have to be read twice or even a couple of times to catch everything.

[sarillia]

I would love to write the kind of experimental stuff that I love. I adore Calvino's If on a winter's night a traveler, and I'm determined to write something in 2nd person that I like even if everyone else hates it. I also want to write something like London Fields, where it switches from a narrative about a writer to the novel he's writing based on his situation. I'm sorting working on plotting something like that but the "novel" sections are limited to excerpts at the beginning of each chapter which will then go on to show what really happened.

I'd also love to write the sort of fantasy that Guy Gavriel Kay writes. And Lois McMaster Bujold too.

And fairy tale retellings! My favorite is Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine. I would love to have written that.

[serria]

I loved Ella Enchanted. I read in it junior high, but it was such an adorable take on the fairy tale, it was hard not to get sucked in. Fairy tale retellings are fun, even when they're done a lot. I love Arthurian legend retellings, but I like seeing the different interpretations different authors use.

I actually read recently, I can't remember where, that Ella Enchanted was rejected by publishers several times. I know that's the case for virtually every book, but considering the commercial success it was, it's one of those good reminders not to take rejection too seriously.

[lunabee34]

I am trying to read the Fionavar series and kinda failing. I'm a ways into the first book, and it's not that I'm bored exactly. I think the narrator irritates me somewhat? Maybe? It's like the narrative just swims along without letting the reader into enough of the context or backstory. IDK Tell me what you like so that I may ride upon that joy to finish these books. LOL

[sarillia]

I actually haven't read that one yet because from what I've read it has the least of the things that appeal to me about Kay's work. I have The Summer Tree though and I'm planning on reading it soon.

A big part of what I like is the settings. He does historical fantasy that are highly based on a particular time and place, which a lot of people do, but I particularly appreciate the variety of his settings and I think he does it best. I'm not really sure what about that style of worldbuilding appeals to me since I enjoy drawing from all kinds of sources to create something completely new but at some point I would like to try this kind of historical fantasy.

I also really like his approach to characters. He doesn't tend to do Good vs. Evil, but just multiple sides that each have a point. I don't feel like I'm being told who to like and who to hate. GRRM is known for that too but I prefer Kay's approach which feels more sympathetic whereas I feel like Martin has a more pessimistic view of people.

[lunabee34]

Cool.

Thanks for sharing with me what you like about him as a writer. Off to see if I can find that in this series. :)