Here’s how a deal for a debut novel was announced on today’s Publishers’ Lunch:
Daniel Clay’s BROKEN, following the sudden unraveling of a suburban community after a single act of thoughtless cruelty, as told through the eyes of an 11-year-old girl in a coma, to Millicent Bennett at Ecco, for publication in fall 2008, by Jonny Geller at Curtis Brown UK.
That sounds like a very challenging POV.
Sounds like they wanted to get the novelization out ahead of the film.
Frankly, I don’t think a film of the back of a little girl’s eyelids would be all that exciting.
I concur. And I don’t think a novel from that pov would be much better.
But how many movies have been narrated by a character that is dead? I just thought it seems like the type of plot device that you’re more likely to see from the film biz than a novel.
Is this a challenge? In my writing group, we sometimes do writing exercises using prompts. Can you imagine the face of my fellow writers if the prompt read “as told through the eyes of an 11-year-old girl in a coma”? They would shiver in dread…
When the book comes out, I would like to see if the author makes it work. It just sounds so gimmicky. Also, I’ve had about enough of “children in peril” storylines. Too gutwrenching.
I can think of a novel and a movie narrated by dead people. Novel: The Lovely Bones. I haven’t read it, but I understand the narrator is a ghost who can float around and see anything she wants, so even dead, she has a little bit of an advantage over a girl in a coma.
Movie: Sunset Boulevard, which of course totally cheats. It’s narrated by a dead man, and that’s just the way it is. However, you don’t care, because it’s such a great movie.
Hello,
I’m Daniel Clay, the author with the unique point of view! I’ve never been called unique before (not in a good way, anyhow), but I think Elizabeth (on Aug 1st) is right. It’s not a new technique. I was actually influenced by the film American Beauty and the TV programme Desperate Houswives. I hadn’t read The Lovely Bones at the time I was writing Broken (2005) but I read it straight after I finished and really enjoyed it (with certain reservations). As for being gimmicky, well, I’d had a few short stories and articles published at the time I sat down to write Broken, but also had quite a few rejected novels piled up and – although I was writing in the hope of getting published – I simply wrote it because I love writing and it was something I really wanted to write. I didn’t expect it to get published any more than all the unpublished novels I’d written over the past twenty years, and just wrote it in what I considered to be the best way to tell the story.
I’ve only just stumbled on this thread but have really enjoyed reading it. I’ve belonged to writing groups in the past and can imagine them rolling their eyes at the prospect of eighty thousand words from the pov of a girl in a coma. If you are at all interested in checking out whether I made it better than paint drying, the first chapter is now available on Amazon.co.uk – just search under Daniel Clay. I’d love to know what you all think. As for dashing it out before they made the film… fingers crossed!!
Best wishes,
Daniel.
Great to hear from you, Daniel. I’m printing your chapter off as we speak (so to speak)!
Here’s the monster link if anyone else wants to give it a try: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/feature.html/ref=amb_link_56637365_1?ie=UTF8&docId=1000157143&pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_s=special-offers-2&pf_rd_r=0BMX9QYM7TYMAENWJQ3P&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_p=176772391&pf_rd_i=0007270135