Wordy Words on WordsIt’s critical to know that RL Stine said he wrote a Goosebumps book in, on average, 1-2 weeks. Some books took six days, some took two weeks.
“Like factory work,” he says.
This is critical. Even if you ignore allegations that he had ghostwriters and don’t consider how much of the final product was them vs Stine, this is still pretty important information because it means that my chief complaint of Goosebumps - that the truly interesting/creepy parts of stories are ignored like they’re nothing in favor of cheap jokey scares - might just be on accident and not just bad writing.
Take this book: The story centers around a haunted school play that was attempted once ages ago but a kid went missing during the performance via a trapdoor in the stage. All evidence of the play was destroyed except for one script so they obviously decided to do the play.
A mysterious kid shows up and wants to be part of the play, the trapdoor on the stage is still there despite about 70 years between play attempts and they’re “refurbishing” it.
The kids investigate the STAGE’S trapdoor which leads to underground tunnels (of course), and they run into the night janitor who runs them off.
Hijinks ensue. The new kid that wants to perform in the haunted play is (brace yourself) the ghost of the kid who fell through the trapdoor and died the first time. Weird how he went missing and they never found the body.
Whatever.
The INTERESTING story is how the “night janitor” wasn’t a janitor at all but a guy who lost his job and was living underground because he was homeless. He kept trying to scare them away from his makeshift home because he was embarrassed but they kept returning.
The idea of a bad guy pushed into the role by the flaws of society and then kids who wouldn’t leave him alone is interesting to me but we don’t get much of THAT because of the predictable A-story here.
#books #bookrecommendation #rlstine #bookstagram #goosebumpsbooks #rlstinebook #readersofpixelfed #read #goosebumps
“Like factory work,” he says.
This is critical. Even if you ignore allegations that he had ghostwriters and don’t consider how much of the final product was them vs Stine, this is still pretty important information because it means that my chief complaint of Goosebumps - that the truly interesting/creepy parts of stories are ignored like they’re nothing in favor of cheap jokey scares - might just be on accident and not just bad writing.
Take this book: The story centers around a haunted school play that was attempted once ages ago but a kid went missing during the performance via a trapdoor in the stage. All evidence of the play was destroyed except for one script so they obviously decided to do the play.
A mysterious kid shows up and wants to be part of the play, the trapdoor on the stage is still there despite about 70 years between play attempts and they’re “refurbishing” it.
The kids investigate the STAGE’S trapdoor which leads to underground tunnels (of course), and they run into the night janitor who runs them off.
Hijinks ensue. The new kid that wants to perform in the haunted play is (brace yourself) the ghost of the kid who fell through the trapdoor and died the first time. Weird how he went missing and they never found the body.
Whatever.
The INTERESTING story is how the “night janitor” wasn’t a janitor at all but a guy who lost his job and was living underground because he was homeless. He kept trying to scare them away from his makeshift home because he was embarrassed but they kept returning.
The idea of a bad guy pushed into the role by the flaws of society and then kids who wouldn’t leave him alone is interesting to me but we don’t get much of THAT because of the predictable A-story here.
#books #bookrecommendation #rlstine #bookstagram #goosebumpsbooks #rlstinebook #readersofpixelfed #read #goosebumps
