The hubby and I ventured into the city on this frigid, frigid night to see Young Frankenstein on Broadway. Frankly, I didn’t think they’d be able to pull off turning the movie into a musical, but I was wrong. I absolutely loved this show! A particular surprise was Megan Mullally whose pipes nearly blew down the house. I’d heard her sing on Will and Grace, but man!
Another grand surprise was the ending. I won’t give away what happens, only to say that it was a bit different, and I must say better. But at the same time it was so natural that I couldn’t remember the movie ending at all. It’s as if Mel Brooks rethought a few things before putting on the show.
This idea intrigued me, since I have the opportunity to have my first books reprinted. To be honest, I can’t remember anything egregiously wrong in any of my books that I would want to alter, but who knows. Maybe when I read them over again something will smack me in the head with the need for fixing. I hope not.
One thing I don’t want to do and hope other authors don’t do as their contemporary books get reprinted is to start updating them as far as technology goes. It seems now that half my character’s problems would have been solved by the presence of a working cell phone, but they were not as predominant when I wrote my first books as they are now. Then again, I don’t really want my books to feel all that dated either. What’s an author to do?
How about you, how do you feel about authors reprinting and revising their works? If you’re an author, how far would you go to revise/update/revamp your work for a reprint?
I own the rights to my first two books (not that I’ve done anything with them yet.) Because I feel my writing has improved in ten years, I’d probably want to go over the manuscript with a red pen, but only in terms of stronger, less passive wording, not story content. The content would have to stay the same. Many reprints from back in the day have new forewords (hope I spelled that right) from the authors, reminding readers of the original publication date to prevent them from thinking that the story is out of date. I think that works fine.
Hmmm. That red pen makes sense, Bettye. Thanks for posting.
All the best,
Dee