My first Booking Through Thursday in over three years! This is one of my favourite Memes.
Patricia asked:
Ever read a book you thought you could have written better yourself?
My immediate answer is “probably”, but I am not a writer. I have low regard for my ability to do so. I have done creative writing as a teenager, dabbled for fun in it again as a university student, and I even done a couple small shots of fanfiction. That is for fiction, but even for academic papers, I find it difficult to write a lot or with great passion about it. I find it difficult to finish stories I started up, and they say great writers can find stories and characters in themselves and take life. I can find some stories in me, but they don’t want to dragged out or even worse, all my characters seem wholly two dimensional. I compare them always to my favourite books which are often classics or award winning novels.
Though, perhaps I could ghostwrite things if I have the material at hand. An outline, established characters, etc. This really shows how limited I believe my writing capabilities are.
In general, I probably have read a couple of bad books enough to think I have written them better. I just can’t remember these exact titles. I am good at picking out books which I generally like and usually, I can’t even think about writing something better. It’s not something that really comes into my head when I read a book that is mediocre or worse. I just rather think I hadn’t read it at all.
I’ve come across books that I feel I could do a better job editing in my years. And there are a few stories I think I could take the same elements and come up with a better story. But the authors in question have done what I haven’t–got their work completed and published.
Hi Michael. I agree that there have been a few books that I think could be better edited as well. As well, I agree that some stories could be improved on. But like you say, the authors were able to get the work done and published, not a very easy business.
My answer is so much shorter than most today!
Here’s My BTT
I don’t think that I could have written it better, but if I was the editor I’d have demanded at least one rewrite.
Not rewrite, but I think I could have been a better editor than some of those books had.