Hey Authors and Playwrights,
This week I signed another contract for a children's book with a publisher I've never worked with before. This ain't my first rodeo. I know the drill very well.
However, there's always a first isn't there.
I'm used to feedback from editors, structural editors, other writer friends and colleagues... heck, I've even had feedback from sales and marketing in the past. But this time, the illustrator wanted to change my words.... huh?!?!
I'm cool with it and yes, I do agree with what this artist suggested but it made me think... in your journey of writing, who has given you unsuspected feedback?
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That is definitely a first lol! Nothing of the sort has happened to me yet ^^;
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Yet. Banafsheh. Yet. X
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ChatGPT gives me a lot of unexpected things, but the one that made me laugh was about *The De-Evolution Game*. It told me "accept that not all your brilliance has to appear on the screen", and then explained that a producer may want to limit the science and the explanations of the parallel universes to keep the world more coherent.
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Congratulations again, Lauren Hackney! Family and friends who aren't writers, producers, directors have given me unsuspected feedback.
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I suspect everyone's gonna want to improve on my work, the loudest being the ones who ignore my offerings. I'd almost rather get a "This sucks" to let me know they're paying attention.
Now the positive feedback is the vast majority of spoken feedback and I have a whole document of these comments which I've already sent to the ignorers (who still keep on ignoring) so therefore nothing that comes my way is unsuspected, although the request for a pilot and synopsis was the first of its kind but still not unsuspected nor unexpected because I've put in the work and have learned long ago that democracy and freedom comes with the price of ignorance, the wish and willingness to not seek out truth or dialogue with others. It's their right to be scroogelike hermits. The Constitution allows it.
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Meriem that's both hilarious and chilling at the same time. Whether it's true or not depends on the imagination of the producer. Are they a Ron Howard (Avatar, Avatar Brave New World--I forgot the name of the sequel) or do they have a binary, linear imagination (the same thing that scares so many cisgenders when gender dissolution enters their world). But at the same time, if you're going to imagine a parallel or skewed universe that's very unlike our own, your imagination needs to still be able to create something coherent enough for viewers to get and the production team to make real. I don't think they'll ever make a movie from Finnegan's Wake for that reason but it's a great book if you can get through Joyce's impossible to follow prose.
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Thank you very much Marc Ginsburg
The De-Evolution Game was originally inspired by Mr. Nobody, and since my story also deals with parallel universes, I tried using a similar structure. I noticed how the psychologist in the film guides the narrative—each new question creates a new branch of Nemo’s reality. But that structure didn’t work for my story.
I need to invent another way to present the parallel universes while keeping the whole narrative coherent.
Here are some insights from the story. I’d like to know your point of view.
https://www.stage32.com/lounge/promotion/The-De-Evolution-Game-Paradoxes...
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Sounds like you had an illustrator think deeply about your message, especially since you approved of the suggestion. My unexpected feedback came from an editor who suggested a different head for my sci fi books. He was right.
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If I ever get unexpected feedback, I'll let you know.