Jimmy Stewart and Chip Foose

Everyone loves Jimmy Stewart's Christmas movie It's a Wonderful Life, right? I do enjoy the story, but I can't watch it without mentally editing the plotline. Donna Reed NEVER in a million years would've become the town librarian. Did the director ever take a look at her gorgeous face, sweet disposition? Give me a break. In my version she would've married their high school buddy in New York, the one with all the money and all the girls hanging around. Of course, he would've cheated on her and made her miserable. It was already perfectly set up in the story, yet the writer never pursued it. Mr. Potter never has his comeuppance; he STOLE money from the Savings and Loan, after all. I think that scrawny guy who hovers in the background should've ratted him out to the police, or at least to the bank examiner. Perhaps other, larger illegal actions could come into the open and the nasty Mr. Potter could get tossed in jail.

See what I mean. It's one of the hazards of being a fiction editor--any imperfections in a story become glaring. I'm bothered. It makes reading any fiction problematic, unless of course it's been well crafted/edited. Few books or films satisfy. I keep asking questions like "Why are you TELLING me this when you haven't SHOWN it by the characters' actions and reactions?" "Where did that motivation come from? It wasn't set up well." "Why did you foreshadow one thing and never give the reader their payoff?" "Cut the backstory and get on with the plot I'm dying for!" "Who is this character again? They all seem to meld together!" "When did this character's eye color change?"

I felt that the new Star Wars movies were merely an example of an author who was too fascinated by his own backstory--in this case less was more! And what was with the characters still in 1980's hairdos and garb? I adore Ewan MacGregor, but I think I'll stick to Big Fish whenever I want to see him. Then the problem with Big Fish was that the son was such a whiner about "the truth of his father's life" that I eventually found him irritating. You see what I mean? Even great stories like Big Fish cause me to trip.

But it's the same in any profession. Whenever we walk into a bookstore, my husband examines the elements of printing and binding of every book he touches. Chefs probably critique the cooking in every restaurant they visit. Chip Foose probably can't help but check out the flame jobs at every car show he appears at. It's just part of the territory.

Traci DePree