I'm really fricking angry. He's going to be as unprofessional as to not read all the books in the series for the project he's been assigned to and then he gets to give advice to young writers? Shut up. Like seriously, shut up. That's just straight up wrong to have not read all the books and then continue the series. Reading outlines of books won't get you anywhere.
Here's an outline of The Hunger Games: Katniss Everdeen volunteers for the Hunger Games, a fight to the death on national TV, to save her sister Prim, who was reaped. She goes with Peeta Mellark, who admits to loving her his whole life while being interviewed on television. The two of them are then considered star-crossed lovers, and the whole nation wants to see the two of them together. They enter the arena, and Katniss ventures off on her own after surviving the bloodbath. She is attacked by the Careers, a group of teenagers that have been trained for the arena, and Peeta is with them. With the help of Rue, she escapes them. She and Rue become allies and plot to destroy the Career's supplies. Katniss successfully blows them up, but Rue is killed. After learning that two tributes can win, Katniss runs off to find Peeta. He is wounded badly, but Katniss braves a Feast where a fellow tribute is killed to get Peeta medicine. He survives and they beat Cato, the last tribute besides themselves by knocking him off the Cornucopia into a swarm of mutts. The Capitol says only one tribute can win, but Katniss and Peeta threaten to eat poisoned berries and they're saved by the Capitol. Unfortunately, the Capitol is now angry and a rebellion is starting because of what they did.
THAT'S AN OUTLINE. And does it mention all the characters? No. Does it mention every single key sequence? No. Does it tell you who Katniss is as a person? What her standards, talents, views and personality traits are? No. Do we know the general themes of the novel? No.
By not reading the books, Chadda does not know the character development, the full progression of the plot, the exact experiences each character went through. And he thinks he's qualified to write a novel that will be published? "I read really, really slowly". Is that his excuse for not reading all the books? Because if he can't pick up a book and do his freaking homework then he should not be writing for the series. He shouldn't have been chosen for the job. It's that simple.
I've read all three Hunger Games and when I'm writing I constantly look back into the books to try and be as accurate as I can. And that's for writing FAN FICTION. I'm a fifteen-year-old, unpublished author wannabe and I would be taking this job more seriously than this published author is. He was given a responsibility, and that was to understand the characters and their situation, and then continue their story. All he did was read a total of four books, and then a page-worth of work for the other 19 books he decided he didn't need to read.
No wonder he made their bickering identical to what they did in Unstoppable. He thought what he was doing was new and exciting.
And now that we know that to Scholastic it's acceptable for their authors not to read all the books, a lot of other things make sense. London probably didn't read Titanic and didn't know that Nellie and Sammy ended in a situation of peril. Standiford probably didn't read the CvV and thought they always evaded paparazzi at the airport with sunglasses instead of fake IDs like they used to. Baldacci probably read a fanfic for the fandom and wrote DoD off of that.
If you're given a paying job to write something, you do your research. I thought that was obvious. Everyone in the Hunger Games cast read all the books before participating in the movies. And all they had to do for their job was act well with what was on their scripts. (Dang, that's a lot of Hunger Games references in one comment. Oops.)
Sorry for exploding all over your post, Grace Anne. It's just frustrating to see how unprofessional Chadda was with his job.
The book could be fantastic. There's no way of knowing until it comes out. I don't know. But I'm not at all happy with this author at the moment.
Um, can you please post this on the Message Board? Because THIS IS SPOT ON. Oh my gosh. Scholastic NEEDS to hear this.
I honestly cannot even fathom being asked to write a book for a series and then NOT READING THE SERIES. Honestly, who does that? If you do that, you have no way of possibly representing the characters correctly AT ALL. How can you feel like you're at all equipped to write a continuation of a story you haven't fully read??
I have zero hope for this upcoming book. Characters are going to be butchered, the wrong people will die, and Carian will end up together and have approximately 9738420 makeout sessions. I give up.
I'm just so disappointed in Scholastic. How can they allow this? It's pathetic. You just don't do that. Ugh. I don't even know what to say.
Pfffth nothing any of the 39C fans would say could change what Scholastic does with the series. They obviously don't care about anything but money now. Before this I could kind of say they still cared about quality (but only kind of) and now it's just being shoved in our faces.
I don't know. I don't understand his logic at all. That's a huge responsibility. If I were in that situation I'd be taking notes on the books and constantly referring to him. Not trying to sound like I'm more qualified but Chadda is literally hurting my soul by acting like he doesn't need to research to write a decent continuation. He's completely wrong.
I'm trying to remain hopeful but at the same time I'm trying to keep it at a low since Chadda seems so unqualified. Characters are going to be butchered (Cara, Ian, Hamilton, Amy), the wrong people will die (probably Amy because if Chadda thinks it's okay to read less than a FOURTH of the series he probably thinks it's okay to kill Amy like that), and Carian will end up together and have approximately 9738420 (times 2) make out sessions.
I'm stunned. I really am.
And you know what I realized? If Chadda has only read The Maze Of Bones, Titanic, Hindenburg and Hurricane he does not know the following people: 1. Erasmus. He will know zip about Erasmus 2. HE DOESN'T KNOW ISABEL. ISABEL WAS VITAL TO THE STORY. 3. Galt (not that any of the authors seem to care about him any more anyway) 4. Shep. 5. He. Doesn't. Know. Evan. Tolliver. The sweet cinnamon roll of a character that gave his life for the Cahills. 6. Who's Pierce? I don't know a Pierce? 7. I don't think Bae was mentioned in the first book, was he?
I know there's lots I'm forgetting I'm just so angry with him I can't think hard enough.
And another thing: JAKE AND ATTICUS HAVE A TOTAL OF TWO PAGES IN TITANIS. AND MOST OF THAT IS ABOUT JAKE. I will officially never see either of them again. Especially Atticus, who is literally mentioned once.
Another thing: A outline of Trust No One will simple say "And then Evan finds out that Sinead is the traitor. He tries to warn Amy but Sinead finds them first and she and Amy fight before Sinead runs away." Motives? None. Just Sinead being evil. And then in DoD it'll say "Sinead apologizes for what she did and tries to help the Cahills once more". And although I'm the first of many to admit that her apology was pretty crappy thanks to our lovely Baldacci, it's better than just a statement sentence. I won't be surprised at all if Chadda turns Sinead into a villain, because to him it probably looks like she is one.
I forgive Cara for her explicitly inconsistent character arc! It was just the result of authors that didn't give a crap about characterization. She's probably the most mishandled character I've ever had to endure reading about.
He needs to back away from Ian and straight out of the series.
I think it's safe to say we should prepare ourselves for a second Day of Doom.
They don't care about quality a bit. Ugh. I don't even want to buy this last book anymore. I will, just because I want to be able to post about it, but I don't want to give Scholastic another penny.
Honestly, you are more qualified than he is. I'd be the same way, I can't imagine not referring to the other books constantly. Ugh. Can you and I just rewrite them all?
I've abandoned all hope. Everything that can go wrong, will go wrong. It's going to be horrible.
I'm just so upset about the whole thing. WHY DID THEY NOT HAVE SOMEONE WITH 39C EXPERIENCE WRITE THIS BOOK?????? All we ask is one well-written book. I don't think that's too much.
He won't know about anything. What about Pony? WHAT ABOUT MR. MCINTYRE. HMM?? All he'll know about Mac is that he was that stuffy lawyer guy who gave a speech. Irina was just a creepy Russian lady. He knows nothing of Natalie's character development. He'll know hardly anything about Isabel. HE KNOWS NOTHING. Literally nothing.
Jake, Atticus, and lovely are all gone. We're never going to see them again.
Yeah, it will be super easy for Sinead to become the villain. Her development is dead as well.
I'm so angry that he's going to ruin Ian. I'm running out of words.
This is going to be Day of Doom on steroids. Excuse me while I go read fanfiction better than this will ever be.
I feel the same way. I wasted money on Hurricane and Hindenburg. I almost want to sell them somewhere and get my money back.
Yes. Let's do it. Item one: cut the closet scene.
It's nothing to ask from a published author with plenty of experience. You might as well be giving them a fanfic prompt on tumblr. Everything is all laid out for them. They just have to write something good.
Pony and a handful of others I'm forgetting. No wonder the impact Natalie had on Ian's life is completely glossed over- the authors don't remember any emotional impact whatsoever. Jake will be the distant boyfriend, Atticus will be the random friend of Dan's, Sinead will be the one girl that went wrong and everyone forgot about. All my favorite characters will be reduced to cardboard cut-outs. And lovely is just a word to Chadda. I'm not even remotely an Amian (even though I admit, if Jamy didn't work out, I'd prefer Amy and Ian to Ian and Cara by a long shot) and I still loved "lovely". It made Ian into something more than just a conniving contender! And now Chadda is acting like he knows Ian! UM, NO. IF YOU DON'T KNOW LOVELY, YOU DON'T KNOW IAN KABRA.
Speaking of fan fiction, I'm sorry my Odesta blog has been so empty the past few days. I'm not letting myself do any new prompts until I finish Part Seven since I've been taking so long, and it's pretty slow going, although I have been forcing myself to write. Also, I'm planning on starting back up my PR blog this summer now that I have time, so if you've completely forgotten about that one (and I wouldn't blame you) you should definitely look for that ( :
I'm tempted. Still debating what to do over that. I kind of want to keep them for reference but UGH. That reminds me, I need to preorder Atomic. Yay.
Please. Next we'll establish Hamilton as a good, solid character without identity crisis again.
Exactly. Like, that would be simple! Fun! WHY CAN'T THEY PUT A LITTLE BIT OF WORK IN?????
You basically put it perfectly- EVERYONE is a cardboard cut-out at this point. No wonder they're being reduced to their season one selves. That's all anyone seems to know about them. And EXACTLY. Lovely was the first glimpse into the fact that Ian wasn't just some cold little servant of his parents'. He was multi-dimensional. Ughhhhhh.
I love the PR blog! Reading Odesta is actually next up on my to-do list;)
I think he knows Isabel. And he must've certainly read about Irina. I don't think the Outlines of the books he read were as brief as you think. They probably involved a lot more notes and character sketches. And as a London resident, he probably does relate to Ian a bit.
And I've read his books, they always have an element of surprise and last minute climaxes. At least, his latest book did. I can understand why Rick Riordan endorses Sarwat Chadda. And you really can't expect him, while working on TWO other projects, to read through almost 24 previous books just to write this one book. If you'd asked me, even I might not have done all that.
I think he knows Isabel. And he must've certainly read about Irina. I don't think the Outlines of the books he read were as brief as you think. They probably involved a lot more notes and character sketches. And as a London resident, he probably does relate to Ian a bit.
And I've read his books, they always have an element of surprise and last minute climaxes. At least, his latest book did. I can understand why Rick Riordan endorses Sarwat Chadda. And you really can't expect him, while working on TWO other projects, to read through almost 24 previous books just to write this one book. If you'd asked me, even I might not have done all that.
Since Isabel was such a vital character, I'm sure he will know who she is and what she stands for, but it's very different to look at a character from the view of an outline, no matter how detailed the outline may be. By not reading the books, Chadda doesn't know how the characters react to Isabel, Isabel's direct thoughts, quotes on Isabel, and many more things that add to the overall development of the character. Even if the outlines were very detailed, the books are still more detailed and give you a closer connection to the characters. And sure, Chadda is a London resident, but I don't know how well he relates to Ian still.
Never having read Chadda's books, I can't say I know what his style of writing is. I'm sure he has quite a bit of talent or he wouldn't have been chosen for the job. That said, if he did not have the time while working on two other projects (which is understandable; that's a crazy amount of work) he probably shouldn't have been chosen for the job unless he was going to give the series the dedication needed to write for it. I just think that there are several more authors out there that could have read all of the books, and since Chadda didn't, it puts him at a disadvantage for writing this one.
OH NO OH NO OH NO
ReplyDeleteWHO LET THIS GUY WHO THINKS HE CAN COMPARE TO IAN WRITE ONE OF OUR BOOKS? WHO? WHO?!?!
excuse me i need to go explode.
Katie katieconfetti.blogspot.com
I don't knowwwwwwww.
DeleteIt's all over.
I'm really fricking angry. He's going to be as unprofessional as to not read all the books in the series for the project he's been assigned to and then he gets to give advice to young writers? Shut up. Like seriously, shut up. That's just straight up wrong to have not read all the books and then continue the series. Reading outlines of books won't get you anywhere.
ReplyDeleteHere's an outline of The Hunger Games: Katniss Everdeen volunteers for the Hunger Games, a fight to the death on national TV, to save her sister Prim, who was reaped. She goes with Peeta Mellark, who admits to loving her his whole life while being interviewed on television. The two of them are then considered star-crossed lovers, and the whole nation wants to see the two of them together. They enter the arena, and Katniss ventures off on her own after surviving the bloodbath. She is attacked by the Careers, a group of teenagers that have been trained for the arena, and Peeta is with them. With the help of Rue, she escapes them. She and Rue become allies and plot to destroy the Career's supplies. Katniss successfully blows them up, but Rue is killed. After learning that two tributes can win, Katniss runs off to find Peeta. He is wounded badly, but Katniss braves a Feast where a fellow tribute is killed to get Peeta medicine. He survives and they beat Cato, the last tribute besides themselves by knocking him off the Cornucopia into a swarm of mutts. The Capitol says only one tribute can win, but Katniss and Peeta threaten to eat poisoned berries and they're saved by the Capitol. Unfortunately, the Capitol is now angry and a rebellion is starting because of what they did.
THAT'S AN OUTLINE. And does it mention all the characters? No. Does it mention every single key sequence? No. Does it tell you who Katniss is as a person? What her standards, talents, views and personality traits are? No. Do we know the general themes of the novel? No.
By not reading the books, Chadda does not know the character development, the full progression of the plot, the exact experiences each character went through. And he thinks he's qualified to write a novel that will be published? "I read really, really slowly". Is that his excuse for not reading all the books? Because if he can't pick up a book and do his freaking homework then he should not be writing for the series. He shouldn't have been chosen for the job. It's that simple.
I've read all three Hunger Games and when I'm writing I constantly look back into the books to try and be as accurate as I can. And that's for writing FAN FICTION. I'm a fifteen-year-old, unpublished author wannabe and I would be taking this job more seriously than this published author is. He was given a responsibility, and that was to understand the characters and their situation, and then continue their story. All he did was read a total of four books, and then a page-worth of work for the other 19 books he decided he didn't need to read.
(cont.)
DeleteNo wonder he made their bickering identical to what they did in Unstoppable. He thought what he was doing was new and exciting.
And now that we know that to Scholastic it's acceptable for their authors not to read all the books, a lot of other things make sense. London probably didn't read Titanic and didn't know that Nellie and Sammy ended in a situation of peril. Standiford probably didn't read the CvV and thought they always evaded paparazzi at the airport with sunglasses instead of fake IDs like they used to. Baldacci probably read a fanfic for the fandom and wrote DoD off of that.
If you're given a paying job to write something, you do your research. I thought that was obvious. Everyone in the Hunger Games cast read all the books before participating in the movies. And all they had to do for their job was act well with what was on their scripts. (Dang, that's a lot of Hunger Games references in one comment. Oops.)
Sorry for exploding all over your post, Grace Anne. It's just frustrating to see how unprofessional Chadda was with his job.
The book could be fantastic. There's no way of knowing until it comes out. I don't know. But I'm not at all happy with this author at the moment.
Um, can you please post this on the Message Board? Because THIS IS SPOT ON. Oh my gosh. Scholastic NEEDS to hear this.
DeleteI honestly cannot even fathom being asked to write a book for a series and then NOT READING THE SERIES. Honestly, who does that? If you do that, you have no way of possibly representing the characters correctly AT ALL. How can you feel like you're at all equipped to write a continuation of a story you haven't fully read??
I have zero hope for this upcoming book. Characters are going to be butchered, the wrong people will die, and Carian will end up together and have approximately 9738420 makeout sessions. I give up.
I'm just so disappointed in Scholastic. How can they allow this? It's pathetic. You just don't do that. Ugh. I don't even know what to say.
Also he needs to shut up about relating to Ian. No. Back away from Ian, now.
DeletePfffth nothing any of the 39C fans would say could change what Scholastic does with the series. They obviously don't care about anything but money now. Before this I could kind of say they still cared about quality (but only kind of) and now it's just being shoved in our faces.
DeleteI don't know. I don't understand his logic at all. That's a huge responsibility. If I were in that situation I'd be taking notes on the books and constantly referring to him. Not trying to sound like I'm more qualified but Chadda is literally hurting my soul by acting like he doesn't need to research to write a decent continuation. He's completely wrong.
I'm trying to remain hopeful but at the same time I'm trying to keep it at a low since Chadda seems so unqualified. Characters are going to be butchered (Cara, Ian, Hamilton, Amy), the wrong people will die (probably Amy because if Chadda thinks it's okay to read less than a FOURTH of the series he probably thinks it's okay to kill Amy like that), and Carian will end up together and have approximately 9738420 (times 2) make out sessions.
I'm stunned. I really am.
And you know what I realized? If Chadda has only read The Maze Of Bones, Titanic, Hindenburg and Hurricane he does not know the following people:
1. Erasmus. He will know zip about Erasmus
2. HE DOESN'T KNOW ISABEL. ISABEL WAS VITAL TO THE STORY.
3. Galt (not that any of the authors seem to care about him any more anyway)
4. Shep.
5. He. Doesn't. Know. Evan. Tolliver. The sweet cinnamon roll of a character that gave his life for the Cahills.
6. Who's Pierce? I don't know a Pierce?
7. I don't think Bae was mentioned in the first book, was he?
I know there's lots I'm forgetting I'm just so angry with him I can't think hard enough.
And another thing: JAKE AND ATTICUS HAVE A TOTAL OF TWO PAGES IN TITANIS. AND MOST OF THAT IS ABOUT JAKE. I will officially never see either of them again. Especially Atticus, who is literally mentioned once.
Another thing: A outline of Trust No One will simple say "And then Evan finds out that Sinead is the traitor. He tries to warn Amy but Sinead finds them first and she and Amy fight before Sinead runs away." Motives? None. Just Sinead being evil. And then in DoD it'll say "Sinead apologizes for what she did and tries to help the Cahills once more". And although I'm the first of many to admit that her apology was pretty crappy thanks to our lovely Baldacci, it's better than just a statement sentence. I won't be surprised at all if Chadda turns Sinead into a villain, because to him it probably looks like she is one.
I forgive Cara for her explicitly inconsistent character arc! It was just the result of authors that didn't give a crap about characterization. She's probably the most mishandled character I've ever had to endure reading about.
He needs to back away from Ian and straight out of the series.
I think it's safe to say we should prepare ourselves for a second Day of Doom.
Oh, and I'm sorry to tell you this, Grace Anne, but if Chadda never read The Sword Thief, he won't know about lovely
DeleteThey don't care about quality a bit. Ugh. I don't even want to buy this last book anymore. I will, just because I want to be able to post about it, but I don't want to give Scholastic another penny.
DeleteHonestly, you are more qualified than he is. I'd be the same way, I can't imagine not referring to the other books constantly. Ugh. Can you and I just rewrite them all?
I've abandoned all hope. Everything that can go wrong, will go wrong. It's going to be horrible.
I'm just so upset about the whole thing. WHY DID THEY NOT HAVE SOMEONE WITH 39C EXPERIENCE WRITE THIS BOOK?????? All we ask is one well-written book. I don't think that's too much.
He won't know about anything. What about Pony? WHAT ABOUT MR. MCINTYRE. HMM?? All he'll know about Mac is that he was that stuffy lawyer guy who gave a speech. Irina was just a creepy Russian lady. He knows nothing of Natalie's character development. He'll know hardly anything about Isabel. HE KNOWS NOTHING. Literally nothing.
Jake, Atticus, and lovely are all gone. We're never going to see them again.
Yeah, it will be super easy for Sinead to become the villain. Her development is dead as well.
I'm so angry that he's going to ruin Ian. I'm running out of words.
This is going to be Day of Doom on steroids. Excuse me while I go read fanfiction better than this will ever be.
I feel the same way. I wasted money on Hurricane and Hindenburg. I almost want to sell them somewhere and get my money back.
DeleteYes. Let's do it. Item one: cut the closet scene.
It's nothing to ask from a published author with plenty of experience. You might as well be giving them a fanfic prompt on tumblr. Everything is all laid out for them. They just have to write something good.
Pony and a handful of others I'm forgetting. No wonder the impact Natalie had on Ian's life is completely glossed over- the authors don't remember any emotional impact whatsoever. Jake will be the distant boyfriend, Atticus will be the random friend of Dan's, Sinead will be the one girl that went wrong and everyone forgot about. All my favorite characters will be reduced to cardboard cut-outs. And lovely is just a word to Chadda. I'm not even remotely an Amian (even though I admit, if Jamy didn't work out, I'd prefer Amy and Ian to Ian and Cara by a long shot) and I still loved "lovely". It made Ian into something more than just a conniving contender! And now Chadda is acting like he knows Ian! UM, NO. IF YOU DON'T KNOW LOVELY, YOU DON'T KNOW IAN KABRA.
Speaking of fan fiction, I'm sorry my Odesta blog has been so empty the past few days. I'm not letting myself do any new prompts until I finish Part Seven since I've been taking so long, and it's pretty slow going, although I have been forcing myself to write. Also, I'm planning on starting back up my PR blog this summer now that I have time, so if you've completely forgotten about that one (and I wouldn't blame you) you should definitely look for that ( :
I'm tempted. Still debating what to do over that. I kind of want to keep them for reference but UGH. That reminds me, I need to preorder Atomic. Yay.
DeletePlease. Next we'll establish Hamilton as a good, solid character without identity crisis again.
Exactly. Like, that would be simple! Fun! WHY CAN'T THEY PUT A LITTLE BIT OF WORK IN?????
You basically put it perfectly- EVERYONE is a cardboard cut-out at this point. No wonder they're being reduced to their season one selves. That's all anyone seems to know about them. And EXACTLY. Lovely was the first glimpse into the fact that Ian wasn't just some cold little servant of his parents'. He was multi-dimensional. Ughhhhhh.
I love the PR blog! Reading Odesta is actually next up on my to-do list;)
I think he knows Isabel. And he must've certainly read about Irina. I don't think the Outlines of the books he read were as brief as you think. They probably involved a lot more notes and character sketches. And as a London resident, he probably does relate to Ian a bit.
DeleteAnd I've read his books, they always have an element of surprise and last minute climaxes. At least, his latest book did. I can understand why Rick Riordan endorses Sarwat Chadda.
And you really can't expect him, while working on TWO other projects, to read through almost 24 previous books just to write this one book. If you'd asked me, even I might not have done all that.
I think he knows Isabel. And he must've certainly read about Irina. I don't think the Outlines of the books he read were as brief as you think. They probably involved a lot more notes and character sketches. And as a London resident, he probably does relate to Ian a bit.
DeleteAnd I've read his books, they always have an element of surprise and last minute climaxes. At least, his latest book did. I can understand why Rick Riordan endorses Sarwat Chadda.
And you really can't expect him, while working on TWO other projects, to read through almost 24 previous books just to write this one book. If you'd asked me, even I might not have done all that.
Since Isabel was such a vital character, I'm sure he will know who she is and what she stands for, but it's very different to look at a character from the view of an outline, no matter how detailed the outline may be. By not reading the books, Chadda doesn't know how the characters react to Isabel, Isabel's direct thoughts, quotes on Isabel, and many more things that add to the overall development of the character. Even if the outlines were very detailed, the books are still more detailed and give you a closer connection to the characters. And sure, Chadda is a London resident, but I don't know how well he relates to Ian still.
DeleteNever having read Chadda's books, I can't say I know what his style of writing is. I'm sure he has quite a bit of talent or he wouldn't have been chosen for the job. That said, if he did not have the time while working on two other projects (which is understandable; that's a crazy amount of work) he probably shouldn't have been chosen for the job unless he was going to give the series the dedication needed to write for it. I just think that there are several more authors out there that could have read all of the books, and since Chadda didn't, it puts him at a disadvantage for writing this one.
But thanks for the new look on the matter!
AMEN ABBY
ReplyDeleteKatie katieconfetti.blogspot.com
THANK YOU
DeleteAnd btw I checked out your blog. it looks really nice!