For movies, we have director’s cuts and extended scenes so we can see more of our beloved characters, but not for books. Sure, some authors have created Facebook and twitter accounts for their characters so that fans can follow and interact with them, but that’s not what I’m talking about here. I’m talking about the one thing that majority of people want no matter what subject we’re discussing. I’m talking about MORE.
Think about your favorite book...
Are you thinking about it?
Good.
How many more beautifully written scenes about your favorite literary characters exist solely on those author’s computers?
Intrigued yet?
What if they had more action scenes, or went out on more dates, or had more close calls. What if the dialogue was different or their personalities? What if... God forbid... that wasn’t even their original name? Gasp!
Sometimes this is brought up during author interviews, but those aren’t always easy to find. And when you do find them, it’s just the author discussing what they did or didn’t change. I don’t want that. I want to read it. I want to read about them doing something trivial. Or read about them doing something that has absolutely nothing to do with the overall plot, but still was a great scene anyway. And dang it, I want to read a scene that sucked! (If nothing else, it will make the writer me happy that other authors have written them too ;) )
As I write, and re-write, and cut, and so forth, I have saved everything so that one day, if all nine planets line up (Pluto will always be a planet, screw you science) and my book gets published, I can say to some brilliant individual who thinks my books are amazeballs, “Did you know that my MC originally had an older sister?” Their jaw drops to release the gas from their mind exploding.
Maybe someday, with the way technology is going, we can have something like author cuts or extended versions for books, but until that day we are all just left to dream about it.
