It was written by our Editorial Director, Jacqui McGhee, and deals with the challenges of writing and publishing today.

On Writing and Daydreams …

If you are reading this then it is likely that you are a writer and you happen to own an overactive imagination. You have perhaps added an unusual literary hero to that mix and then allowed yourself to indulge in some weird daydreams.

I sometimes wonder if I could have gone without shoes and kept on writing just as Samuel Johnson did. I doubt it, but I still like to imagine myself in dark eighteenth-century Britain sacrificing my toes to literary achievement.

We all dream of distant places and different times. We assure ourselves that were we in that situation; we would overcome adversity to become the great writers our heroes became. But what about the challenges we face now? Well those are a different kettle of fish.

We don’t have a time-machine and we can’t go back but every time you read a favourite classic, you recognise what your heroes did right. Learn from them. Learn how to tell a good story, create memorable characters and colourful dialogue. Use it to create something new of your own.

As a writer nowadays, you’ve almost inevitably been carrying around another daydream since you first picked up a pencil and scribbled on a wall. It normally involves your brilliant novel being tripped over by a publisher who loves it, jumping straight from discovery to bestselling, lots of applause and you sit pretty for the rest of your days.

That’s very pleasant but where’s the story, the challenge and the adversity? If that dream came true you wouldn’t be anyone’s hero, you’d just be lucky. It’s a good thing then that it’s not likely to come true. You don’t have to give up all the interesting bits just because we live in a different time. You can be a hero.

In the opening to Bleak House, Dickens imagines dinosaurs waddling about London in the mud. Well the mud has gone but the dinosaurs are there, only they seem to have become publishing houses. Dinosaurs always need to know where their next meal is coming from. They’ll take no risks on unproven writers or new ideas whilst they’re unsure of their own survival on a changing planet.

There’s the challenge.

We’re here in the beginning; we have a chance to do something new, innovative and brave. We can be a new species of writer and publisher: shed the scales, grow feathers and fly forward to meet the future. The worst that can happen is that you try and fail but even then, you’ve lost nothing more than if you had stood still.

Opportunity knocks! Now is the time to try Write something, publish something and let us know what happens.

Giglets is making an attempt to salvage some of the classics that are getting lost in the back of the library. We want to retell those great forgotten stories in language that is modern and easy to understand and, in doing so, bridge the gap between classic stories and modern readers.

Here are some of the challenges we faced with our first seven titles:

Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: The Speckled Band
This was a risky choice for our first title. Although it was short enough to ease our way into the rewriting process, we could hardly have picked a more recognisable character to begin with.

We discovered an ‘inaccuracy’ issue to do with an ‘Indian cheetah’ and we realised that sometimes our original authors may have made mistakes that we would want to correct. Look out for the bed bolted to the floor; we had to drop it from our text but we tried to keep the details of the original story in our illustrations.

John Buchan’s The Thirty-Nine Steps
Gracious! This ebook was hard work! John Buchan wrote a nonstop action adventure story and we had trouble cutting it down to our Giglets-sized ebook. We took a little shortcut in the plot, can you tell where though? Of particular interest are the details of the car in one illustration and, of course, the vital clue to the whole mystery, the thirty-nine steps.

Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
This book is where the Giglets idea really came into its own. There is no doubt that Jekyll and Hyde is a brilliant story and it’s incredibly famous but sometimes the language simply gets too complicated or detailed for young modern readers. The Giglets team are delighted to know that we’ve already earned a few loyal young fans through this story. We’re even more delighted since it’s unlikely that they could have enjoyed the story in its original form.

James Matthew Barrie’s The Little White Bird or Adventures in Kensington Gardens: Peter Pan
Peter Pan is known the world over but not one of the Giglets team had ever heard of this story. This is the creation story of Peter Pan and it is precious. We had to make a few sticky decisions with this story but it turned out all right in the end. We’ve even included a few direct quotes from the original; if James Barrie wrote something perfect then there’s no need for us to change it.

James Hogg’s The Brownie of the Black Haggs
James Hogg is often forgotten about and we think that is a terrible shame. We rescued this text although as it’s quite a violent little horror story, it was a difficult one for us to publish. We think it works well and it’s certainly more popular than we expected. It has a funny ‘dourness’ about it that we’ve only ever discovered in old Scottish stories.

Walter Scott’s Waverley or ‘Tis Sixty Years Since
Waverley was the longest and most challenging text we’ve encountered thus far. Walter Scott is known for being wordy and that presented a problem for us in rewriting this story. Waverley is an enjoyable romantic adventure story but unless you have three weeks to read the original then don’t try. If you read it when you’re tired then you’ll fall asleep … but you can manage our rewrite in the time it takes to enjoy a cup of tea.

William Shakespeare’s Macbeth
We must have been mad to keep Macbeth for our lucky number seven. It is known for being unlucky but, in our case, ‘the Scottish play’ was a treat to write and illustrate and our only worry about it is that as it’s Shakespeare we might provoke a few sleeping giants and get told off for touching the Bard’s words. However, the story is a great one and we’ve tried to make it accessible to children as young as eight, here’s hoping it goes well; at the moment it’s too soon to tell.

What’s next?
It’s been a rollercoaster ride of excitement for us for the last few months but there’s something coming that’s more important and exciting than anything else we’ve had yet. Now that we’ve published our first batch of titles and they’re being picked up by readers scattered over the globe, we’re excited to hear what you think. Please tell us in the comments

 How do stories become classics?

There are many answers to that question but the one I’m looking for is that a classic is a story we love hearing told again and again. I’ll add a touch more to that description: A classic fascinates and captivates; it takes hold of your imagination and leads you into an entirely new world.
When you first heard your favourite classic story, you may have been very little, the story filled you with a sense of wonder and you feel a bit of that again when you hear the story now.
A classic stays with you; it is memorable. Because of this, these stories are loved and repeated so often that they become part of our language and culture; they inspire and influence us every day.

If classic literature is so wonderful, why would we change it?

Well, much-loved classics were written a long time ago. And although some of them are remembered, others are starting to fade. Often we know of them and have a vague understanding of the story but reading the original feels a little too much like hard work.
The original context, references and language of each classic text have often passed out of common knowledge. The world has changed since that story was written and, although that doesn’t change the appeal of the story, it makes the text itself difficult for a modern audience to understand.
To understand that story in its original form takes a little research and a lot of time. Again, that’s more like work than amusement and it’s not really what stories are meant for. Time is also something that most of us have in short supply.

How do we ‘adapt’ classic literature?

Giglets takes an original classic story (warts and all) and removes or simplifies difficult content until just the story remains. The story is then rewritten in easy-to-understand language for modern readers of any age. We don’t change the story itself; we just make it more accessible for the readers of this century.
In editing out the flowery or complicated language and the difficult-to-follow references, we shorten the story to make a Giglets adaptation a quick and easy read. It takes 15 minutes to read a Giglets ebook. We then add some of those vital full-colour illustrations and just a pinch of Giglets magic.
When everything is done, and we have a new Giglets Adapted and Illustrated Classic Ebook, we give it a pat on the head and an apple for the teacher and send it skipping out into the virtual world.

Why am I telling you this?

I want you to know why we’re modernising classics and the thoughts behind the Giglets ebooks. We’re trying to make brilliant classic stories accessible; we don’t want to lose any of that magic or wonder. We want to recreate it for you and make it easy to find and share.
And about that: ‘How to love a Giglets Adapted and Illustrated Classic Ebook’. Well we won’t know how until you tell us what you think and how you read yours. Please let us know what you think of our ebooks. We appreciate your input.