This is a PG work of fiction as told from the perspective of Margaret, a love interest of Lucas’ from the series, Monterey Valley (WARNING! Link=NSFW)* I’ve written many exposition pieces over the last year and seem to never find the time to finish them before the day is out. Without looking, I thought this would be the best question answered by Margaret and so wrote it from her perspective. Ooops when I realized the last exposition piece I wrote was also from Margaret’s perspective!
A side note:
The book referenced in this work is fictional (Boy’s of Time) and as far as I can find, no book exists with that name.

I’m still trying to wrap my head around the idea of changing the ending of a book… It’s simply sacrilegious! Books are… a pure form of imagination made manifest. They are the culmination of a person(s) hard work and dedication to their own personal myth. To change that would be to me like asking, ‘If you could change how any person behaved, who would you choose?’ Like, let me take away this person(s)’ agency to create exactly how they want to in a space where there is an expectation of freedom to dream as you like!

Maybe I’m being a bit to excessive with my argument against.

The writer in me simply finds this idea offensive.

To the extreme…

Are there bad books out there, bad stories?

Yes.

But they have their own purpose in what they bring to to the world. Like… If I hadn’t read Boys of Time and absolutely hated what they did to the main character’s love interest at the end, I would never have gotten into writing fanfiction. Do you know where I would be without having gotten into fanfiction? I wouldn’t be a lover of writing and I definitely would be out of a job. Because that’s what I do. I write for a living.

I have a side blog that I use to keep my readers up to date on my life and works while I attempt to cobble together a story about a girl and her dragon (that turns out to be her unborn twin sister who’s soul accidentally got shunted into the realm of the gods and…) Uhm… Spoilers? I doubt you’ll even remember by the time I go to publish but I’m getting ahead of myself! I have to have a finished copy of the book in order to publish. And getting it published is a whole other to do list that’s not even finished yet because I don’t even have-

Ahem…

Back to the books…

The point is, I like my job even though it’s just writing boring old copy for travel influencers. Freelance, sure, but it pays the bills and I get to do what I love!

Going back to my book though… I love my story. It’s got dragons and a FMC and teaches little girls that they can be heroes too and there’s magic and floating islands where water streams down from the heavens and… I already know how the book ends. I wrote the last chapter first. Kinda like reading the last chapter first? No, that’s different… But I do that too.

Stars!

Focus!

I know how my book ends! And to have someone read my book and hate the ending so much that they would want to change it would just crush me. Why not look at their own world? Why not look to see where in their lives they can change and use the ending of my book as a catalyst? I know not everyone will like my writing or my book. It’s unavoidable. But to have someone choose to change it when they could instead let it color part of their world in a positive way hurts more than the idea that they hate it in the first place.

…

It’s really still outside right now.

Not even the clouds are moving.

And it’s hot.

Like an oven.

I love it.

……

A book is just a story. Sometimes it’s real, and sometimes it’s fiction. But even when it is real, it’s still a retelling that’s dictated by how you perceive that history. What happened colors everything you think about it and preloads your brain with new bias. Knowing that, I want to ask you instead a different question. If you could go back and change the ending of one of the story arcs in your life, would you?

Your story is who you are, it’s what made you… You.

Changing the end is like building a time machine to go back and change the past to make a better future but you just end up erasing the present (or splintering the timeline. Whatever. Wibbly wobbly, timey whimey…)

No… I would never go back and change the ending of a book. Not even the bad ones. They’ve made me who I am. And if they changed, if I changed them… I’d change me.

And I like me.

No.

I Love me.

Another Note:
That is all I have time for today. I’ve been itching to get back to my writing because I have so many plans! But summer body slammed me with seasonal work. The farm takes priority and what is summer if not prime farming season? I hope to be more prolific as things start to wind down.
Till next time!
-Vale