What Would You Do?

I've been a little behind on current events. Happens when you work unbelievably long hours. (g)

Anyway, I nearly missed the whole MIDNIGHT SUN controversy. I'd heard about all the backlash regarding BREAKING DAWN, and I guess I figured it was all tied together somehow. Not so, apparently.

If you're not familiar, the gist is that 12 chapters of MIDNIGHT SUN, a retelling of TWILIGHT (by Stephenie Meyers) from Edward's POV was leaked onto the internet. And as with anything highly sought after, it spread like wildfire. Meyers hasn't revealed much about the leak, only saying it was given to trusted individuals and that she doesn't believe the original leak was done with any malicious intent. For the whole story (in her own words), go HERE, the August 28, 2008 entry.

Now here comes the truly sad part. Because of this leak, Meyers has postponed finishing the book -- indefinitely.

A lot of people are obviously bothered by this decision, but I must say that I can empathize with her. Imagine if you were writing a book, and had given it to trusted individuals. Now whether it was intentional or not, that book was released onto the internet. Gah, I don't think I would be too off base by saying that most of us would be fairly ticked off. And honestly, I would have a hard time trusting anyone from there on out. Would I be unable to finish the book? See, I don't know. I guess I couldn't really say unless I were in that situation, but think about it... those twelve chapters tally up to almost 300 pages of her book. Egads. Tell me that wouldn't upset you.

I think most of us would be devastated.

Meyers makes an interesting point in her post. For a writer, mood is everything. If you're not "in the right frame of mind," the book will suffer. This sort of contradicts the whole idea that writing is a job and that you should always push through, but I think it's somewhat true. If you're trying to finish a book that you know people have already read nearly half of...well, wouldn't it be hard for you to carry on? And how in the world would you trust anyone with your much loved manuscript again?

Anyway, she decided to post the chapters...giving in to a losing battle, I suppose. And well, who knows if she'll ever finish the book. Kinda sad when you think about it. Very unfortunate all around, but I can't say I really blame her...though I'm very disappointed.

Any thoughts?