A Contest!
First, a word about my experience at Mount Hermon this year. As always, it was wonderful. The highlight is meeting with the many writers, both published and, hopefully, pre-published. I’ve requested that several proposals be emailed to me and I will look at them more closely than I was able to do at the conference. If you are an aspiring writer, PLEASE go to at least one conference a year. It really is worth it if you’re serious about publication.
Now I want offer a few words about fiction….and announce a contest. This week the book group I belong to will be discussing People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks. I’m only a third of the way through and am not likely to finish. Thus, I will be unable to offer a score on the book when we meet. But the reason I’m not likely to finish is the purpose of this present blog. Frankly, I’m bored by the book. And yet I have to admit that Brooks is a good writer. Her considerable research was impeccable. Her writing is fine—sort of. She creates believable (if uninteresting) characters. The ingredients for a good book are mostly here. So, what’s my problem?
Just this: I don’t give a rip about these characters or what happens to them. Also, the necessary conflict in a good novel seems to me to be missing. And the writing, though very craftsman-like, is, to me, flat. The bottom line is that life is too short to continue reading a book that is well-written on one level, but utterly flat on the most important level—that of engaging me, the reader. Of course, reading (like acquiring books as an editor) is subjective. Of the 275 reader reviews on Amazon, 121 are five-star. But 82 are three-star or less. And I’m going to have to number myself with that latter group.
My point is that it takes more than good writing and the semblance of a plot to write a really excellent book. You HAVE to make your characters interesting and sympathetic enough for me to want to spend several hours of my life with them. I often read manuscripts just like People of the Book. The writing is craftsman-like, the plot is serviceable, but the overall result is utterly flat. It’s not enough for the individual components of a book to be well-done; those components must combine to offer something out of the ordinary.
Having said that, I want to segue to my contest. Although Ms. Brooks failed me with this book, I’m eventually going to give her another chance. A previous novel of hers intrigues me. If you’ve read Little Women by Louisa May Alcott, you’ll remember that Mr. March (the father) is not present, having gone off to the Civil War. So in her book March, Ms. Brooks imagines Mr. March’s life away from home. The reader reviews on Amazon are just about as split as on the newer book, but because I like the idea of March, I’ll give it a try. And that brings me to my contest. I’ve often been intrigued by the idea of “but what happened next” after a book ends. One of my favorite quotes is from author Mary Gordon who has reportedly said, “When I get to heaven, I want to find my characters there and ask them what happened to them after the book ended.”
That’s a paraphrase of her comment, but it makes the point that her characters are so real to her, their existence continued after the book she wrote ended.
Once in a college course I wrote a short story that was a sequel to a story by Sherwood Anderson (one of my favorite American writers). I loved imagining “what happened next.” So here’s my contest: I want you to choose Scarlett O’Hara from Gone with the Wind, Scout from To Kill a Mockingbird, or Holden Caulfield from Catcher in the Rye and write a brief explanation of what you imagine happened to them after the book ended. Pretend that you have been given a book contract by the copyright owners of one of these books and asked to write a sequel. What would you write?
Here are the rules:
1. I don’t know how many blog readers I have, so I will cancel the contest if there are fewer than ten entries. (To ensure enough entries, you might want to tweet the contest or refer others here).
2. The contest is open to both published and unpublished authors.
3. Must be no longer than 250 words. Simply enter your synopsis in the comments section.
4. No silliness. (Don’t have Scarlett run off to become a nun or Holden become a televangelist).
5. Just a short synopsis please, not part of the imagined book itself.
6. Deadline will be Sunday night, April 11. The winner will be announced next week.
7. I reserve the right to remove any entries that I deem in poor taste or in any way inappropriate.
The winner will receive his or her choice of a phone consultation regarding his or her work-in-progress (after I review it) or a $10 gift card to Starbucks or Barnes and Noble.
Besides all that, I hope it’s a fun and productive exercise for you. If you choose not to enter, just take a few moments and imagine the destiny of one or more of these three characters. What would you have them do?
In college, I wrote a continuation of Frankinstein. A fun project.
Cool contest! I will try to make time to enter it myself, but I will definitely tweet and post about it for you.
I’m having a quiet introspective kind of day–perhaps some time with Scarlett O’Hara will liven things up a bit. Thanks for the prompt.
I will enter.
Rhett had left her before, but this time was different . . . he wasn’t angry. He was cold and detached. He “didn’t give a damn.”
Oh, she wouldn’t think about it now. She’d think about it tomorrow.
#
Next morning Scarlett sits bolt upright in bed, an expression of sheer pleasure spreading across her beautiful face. She would restore Tara to its former beauty–and somehow win Rhett back.
Scarlett convinces Big Sam and Mammy to join her at Tara. Big Sam recruits farm workers to plant and tend cotton fields while Scarlett and Mammy oversee the restoration of the house.
In her single-minded effort to heal her home, Scarlett neglects her own health. No amount of Mammy’s chiding can get her to rest or eat right. Like her mother before her, Scarlett falls ill with a fever and is at the point of death.
Meanwhile, Rhett accompanies his ailing nemesis Ashley Wilkes to the neighboring plantation where Ashley plans to die alone within the ruins of Twelve Oaks.
Returning to Atlanta, Rhett passes Tara, now a prosperous plantation. Big Sam greets Rhett and tells him Scarlett lies dying inside the house. Stunned, Rhett runs at full speed and throws open the doors. He meets a weeping Mammy who points to Scarlett’s room.
Ghostly pale, Scarlett appears not to recognize Rhett. He takes her in his arms and swears to God he will spend the rest of his life caring for Scarlett if only she will live.
There’s one! Nine to go!
Great post, Nick. Will try to catch you up on Scarlett if I can find a minute in between life’s obstacles.
As the slam of the front door echoed through the huge house, Scarlett turned and climbed the stairs, her feet as heavy as lead. What was she to do? How could she have been so blind? Ashley–poor, bewildered, beautiful Ashley–would never be more than a burden to her, like Wade Hampton or Louella.
She longed for Mammy, for those callused hands that would comfort her. She longed for Tara . . . but the taxes would fall due again in only a matter of months, and if Rhett went through with his threat of divorce, she might not be able to pay that bill. Her beloved Tara was nothing but a beautiful albatross around her neck.
Death and taxes, taxes and death–would she never either of them? She turned the corner at the landing and felt a shiver travel up her spine when she passed the room that had been Bonnie’s. An inexplicable impulse seized her, and she pushed on the door, then gasped when she glimpsed a shining apparition in blue.
“You’re beautiful, Mommy,” the ghost said. “And I’ll never leave you.”
Scarlett backed into the hallway, her hand at her throat. Melanie dead, Rhett gone, Bonnie a ghost and Ashley dead weight–how was she going to survive the next chapter of her life?
Holden Caulfield would be an ideal candidate for a new twist on such books as Dear John and The Bridges of Madison County, where the male finds and looses his one true love.
The new book would be written in first person, since Holden is writing prior to his planned retreat and isolation from civilization. It would be his story of having been drawn out of his cynicism by the love of a woman he couldn’t resist. It would cover their meeting, their years together, and their children, and his loss when she dies in her late fifties of cancer.
There would be no reference to religion. The book would simply chronicle the wholesome goodness of a woman who wholeheartedly loved him. He would close with publication permission, when the manuscript is discovered after his death.
A first-time author from a small publishing house causes a stir with the 1960 release of One Good Turn: the story of brotherhood in a colorblind world. Despite their best efforts, none of the news outlets can manage to land an interview with the mysterious author, Atticus Radley. The book climbs the New York Times Bestseller list and stirs controversy all the way from East Coast boardrooms to southern diners.
One reporter is determined to uncover the identity of the mysterious author. He befriends a lonely secretary at the publishing house and then follows the path of the first royalty check to a post office box in Maycomb County, Alabama.
When Scout pulls up at the post office, he assumes she is the author’s assistant come to fetch the check. They have several encounters before the reporter discovers Scout is actually Atticus Radley. So begins a rocky friendship that leads Scout and the reporter into the heart of the Civil Rights movement of the sixties.
Hi Nick,
I’ll be interested to see your reaction to _March_. Mine was very similar to your take on _People of the Book_. In fact, I find that I lose interest in most contemporary literary fiction, because the authors don’t allow their characters to be sympathetic enough. The writers are too focused on flaws to allow even one heroic trait. I enjoy beautiful writing, but not when it’s done with the purpose of showing me a bleak and empty worldview in which “redemption” is (at most) the weak flicker of a lamp in the closing sentences. 🙂
Holden Caulfield:
I put in my time.
After college I took my degree in American Literature and realized it qualified me for a lifetime of one-room apartments looking out on the back alleys of guys who’d chosen business school so I signed on with my uncle to write mortgages for thirty years. It was like being walled up alive but it saw me through two marriages and put Junior through Harvard Law.
About a year ago, I realized I couldn’t listen to one more entitled blowhard complain about the hit he took in the market and how he needed my help to creatively refinance his home in the Vineyard. It’s not like I hate money – turns out that’s all I’ve got now– solid investments and a heart the doc tells me is on a shorter timer than I’d planned. So, after I let one of our major clients know exactly what I thought he should do with the house he bought for his mistress, my cousin and I agreed I was ready for early retirement.
Which suits me fine.
Because that night, I got a call from Junior, who tells me he’s having some kind of crisis, can’t take it anymore and after a long conversation, we decide to hit the road. He wants to see the birthplaces of his top ten favorite rock stars and me, I just don’t want him to repeat my screwed up life. I’m going along to see if I can save him before it’s too late.
I know you asked for a synopsis only, but obviously some of us couldn’t resist jumping into the proposed book! 🙂
I’ll be entering … just brushing up on the original story first. Thanks for the invitation.
To Kill A Mockingbird
Scout decides to give something back to Boo Radley for saving her life. In a collection of letters Scout composes, she shares a mix of gratitude and neighborhood highlights. Never seeing him face-to-face, Scout silently slips the correspondence underneath Boo’s front door.
Careful to keep it a secret from everybody, especially Jem, Scout inches closer to the idea of womanhood when she befriends the daughter of a new colored family in town. Margaret likens to a delicate flower, instructing Scout in everything from hair bows to social graces. Nevertheless, Scout would still prefer to climb a tree on most days.
Family pecking order takes a turn as summer rolls in, when Scout sees right through Jem’s crush on Margaret, and threatens to squeal. Jem, who is mortified that anybody notices his unruly emotions, agrees to do Scout’s chores (brought on by Aunt Alexandra) in order to keep her quiet. But Margaret’s stolen kiss behind Boo Radley’s tree ignites a budding romance sure to ruin this sleepy town.
Scout’s attitude about Jem changes when attempts are made on Atticus’ life. Desperate to save her family, Scout makes one last appeal as she tiptoes up to Boo’s front door and knocks. Anxious to find a safe hide-out for Atticus, her hope hinges a thread of unanswered letters.
Gone with the Wind
Two years after Rhett left her, Scarlett meets Blaine Walters, a handsome and clever carpetbagger from New York. Their improbable relationship has a rough beginning as she embodies the spirit of the old South, and he is seen as an opportunist. Blaine is irrepressible in his pursuit of Scarlett. He also catches the attentions of other women in reviving Atlanta. Scarlett believes his wealth and influence are necessary to restore the land to the glory it once knew. Blaine has the right connections with Republican politicians and wealthy Northern industrialists. All her life Scarlett has been driven to win, whether that meant acquiring the affections of the most desirable men or gaining businesses and making them successful.
Her engagement puts her at odds with family and friends. One night she is attacked by Ku Klux Klan members who view her as a traitor. Rhett rescues her and a twinge of the love he once felt for her rekindles, but he is put off by Scarlett’s intent to marry Blaine.
Three years later, the failure of the Reconstruction is evident. Scarlett moves North with Blaine. She becomes disaffected with the ladies of New York society who look down their noses at her. She discovers Blaine mortgaged all her properties for his failing businesses and has been unfaithful to her.
She returns home penniless and forsaken. Rhett embraces her again, perhaps out of love or pity. He doesn’t know whether she loves him. Together they head to San Francisco to start anew.
Scarlett O’Hara from “Gone with the Wind”
Sequel by Tami Meier
Two long, grueling years passed after Rhett’s “fed up-I have HAD it with you” attitude toward Scarlett and her conniving ways. Throughout each month that passed, Scarlett wondered if Rhett would ever return to her. By this time, she began to lose all hope and questioned if he was alive or perhaps had found another woman to meet his expectations of a faithful wife and nurturing mother.
Trying to fulfill the discontentment, her heart yearned with an intense drive for even greater persuasive passion for fresh blood. During the following three years, she allowed her smooth lips to prey on new men who entered her small town. Wiping her mouth after each indulgence, her cold heart turned numb—her mind denied that she had done anything wrong. And now, five years after Rhett’s abandonment, Scarlett became deathly ill with what was scarcely known as scarlet fervor. Her empty choices lead her to this point of facing certain death. Lying in bed in a puddle of sweat, Scarlett let her mind race for she longed to hold onto the one true redemptive scarlet thread—A Savior, her only glimmer to future hope. Could this fervor melt the heart of Scarlett before it’s too late?
Great minds think alike…..
Gone With the Wind
Scarlett O’Hara, daughter of an Irish immigrant, twice widowed and recent divorcee learns that rebuilding her family plantation in the post-war South is a difficult task for a single woman, and worse, the rich earth does little to cleanse her tattered soul. She labors passionately having found her niche operating her second husband’s sawmill. She welcomes the carpetbaggers heading south with an open palm, but a female willing to work with northerners, especially one who hires freed slaves as a foreman over whites, captures the attention of the Klan. Scarlett is labeled as a scalawag. The threats only force her to dig her boots in deeper, but she can only fight so many men. First the sawmill, then her beloved Tara are scorched to the ground and with it any hopes of returning to the Antebellum South.
Scarlett seeks a new start and heads west to San Francisco to open a sawmill in the redwoods. She struggles, slipping slowly into debt, until the fateful morning in 1906 when the Bay rumbles with an earthquake and the resulting fire burns much of the city to the ground. Now in high demand, her mill hums day and night cutting top-dollar beams, making her the Bay area’s next female millionaire. She uses her fortune to travel the U.S. on behalf of women’s suffrage. During a trip to Chicago, she meets a spunky young Amelia Mary Earhart and tells her, “Fiddle-dee-dee. No one can stop you from soaring, sugar.”
Scarlett, left with no one, sits awaiting rescue. After two days and nights, it becomes apparent no one is coming.
Scarlett pulls herself together as best as she can, and begins walking. After hours and hours, a man on a horse with a wagon pulls up beside her and offers her a ride into town.
The town’s store owner takes pity on her and offers her a job. At first, Scarlett resists and wallows in self-pity. Finally realizing she is out of options, she works harder than she has ever worked in her life, learning the trade and how to run the store. She finds satisfaction and pride in doing an honest day’s work.
Eighteen months later, Rhett rides into town and happens to walk into the store where Scarlett works. She doesn’t see him, and at first he doesn’t recognize her. When he realizes it is her, he stays in town to watch her, but doesn’t let her see him. Feelings stir in him and he falls in love with this new, independent Scarlett.
When he sweeps in to declare his love for her, she is aloof. This only encourages his desire. He is determined to win her back, take her home to Tara and start again. Rhett suddenly finds he is in competition with the town Doctor for Scarlett’s love.
Scarlett admires the Doctor and his work ethic, but is ultimately won over by her deep love for Rhett. Together they rebuild Tara and have a family.
So many good ideas came out of this from others. I prefer to not add any more characters and “mature” Scarlett.
Gone With the Wind
Scarlett is summoned to Ashley’s plantation and his deathbed. She hurries. It’s been over a year since Rhett left. She and her slaves have worked hard to keep Tara. Life has been a struggle and they live hand to mouth in their efforts to work the land and pay taxes. Hard life has matured her. She gasps in horror as she hugs a wisp of a man that struggles to bestow his last requests on her.
Ashley tells Scarlett that with no living relatives he is giving her Twelve Oaks and his business. He explained that he has always loved her and their blue-blood life, but she was too strong and he lacked confidence around her. He fell in love with Melanie differently. The gentle man told Scarlett that Rhett and she had a similar love. Scarlett tried to interrupt, but he squeezed her warm hand and continued. Rhett must be forgiven and taken back. Ashley begged her to make Tara and their lives beautiful again. The frail man shared that Rhett had visited recently.
Two days later, at Ashley’s funeral, Scarlett sees shadows of her smiling Father, Bonnie,and Ashley. Melanie was holding Ashley’s arm. Beautiful Scarlett realizes that Ashley was right. She still loves Rhett deeply. Would he come back?
Mammy introduced Scarlett to Jesus. She could trust her prayers would be answered. After all, tomorrow is another day and miracles happen. A movement behind the oak tree distracts her.
Nice stories, everyone. I will close the contest at midnight tonight and judge the entries tomorrow and will announce the winner tomorrow night.
After Melanie’s funeral, Scarlett stops by the Wilkes residence to bid Ashley farewell. She finds him holding a revolver against his temple. Scarlett talks him out of shooting himself and convinces him to go to Tara with her. Thus, fulfilling the promise she made Melanie to watch over Ashley and Beau.
In Tara, Suellen’s husband, Will, has died of malaria. Scarlett realizes that she is pregnant again. She plans a trip to Charleston, where Rhett now lives, to tell him about their new baby.
In Charleston, Rhett doubts her, but there is a part of him that hopes she’s not lying. He is still determined to divorce her. Scarlett fears her reputation would never recover. Rhett simply mocks her.
When Rhett’s lawyer arrives to Tara, Scarlett throws him out of the plantation. She continues to care for Beau and Ashley, who’s become a drunk, but her relationship with him is platonic.
Rhett takes the divorce papers to Tara since Scarlett has refused to sign them. He is touched when he meets Scarlett’s new daughter, but Suellen, who still hasn’t forgiven Scarlett for marrying Frank Kennedy, tells Rhett that Scarlett’s child is Ashley’s, and that they’ve been living as husband and wife since they arrived to Tara.
Rhett is enraged by the news and takes Suellen as a mistress. Devastated, Scarlett signs the divorce papers.
Three years later, Rhett and Suellen run into Scarlett in Atlanta. Scarlett’s child is the spitting image of Bonnie Blue. Rhett is moved by Scarlett’s tenderness toward the child and longs for the life they once shared. Suellen breaks down and confesses her lies about Ashley. Rhett and Scarlett finally forgive each other.
Everyone thinks Scout will become a lawyer like Atticus. But the when the world goes to war, she trains as a nurse and goes to Europe with the Red Cross. When her brother Jem is injured and has a leg amputated, she questions if the price of the war is too high. Maybe Atticus was wrong all along. Maybe the world would be a better place if people stayed out of other people’s fights.
Dill, not strong enough to join the army, pours himself into his job as a war correspondent. Scout sees him from time to time and thinks he is sensationalizing his stories about what is happening behind the enemy line in order to build his own name as a reporter.
As it becomes obvious that the Germans are about to surrender, Dill shares with Scout the rumors he’s been hearing about the atrocities the Nazis are committing against the Jews. Scout doesn’t believe him, but on a childish dare, she abandons her post and goes on a dangerous voyage behind the lines of the crumbling German regime. When they see the emaciated prisoners pouring out of the camps, the billows of black smoke coming from smokestacks behind the barbed wire, they are both changed forever. Dill vows to write stories that will reveal the truth.
Scout realizes the depth of suffering that comes when people ignore oppression. At the end of the war, she goes to law school, determined to defend the defenseless, just like Atticus did.
http://303202.com/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=75064&fromuid=6257