I’m new to the fanciful world of American author Bill Brittain, but I recently read his books All the Money in the World and The Wish Giver. In both books, the main characters are presented with the opportunity to make a wish for anything they want. But, as is often the case with these magic wish deals, the characters learn the hard way that they have not selected the best wording for their wishes and things start to go wrong, fast.
I’m about to give away a few plot points for the first book; granted, it was written in 1979, but I still wanted to give fair warning.
In All the Money in the World, the main character gets just that—all the money in the world. That includes money from people’s pockets and wallets and under their couch cushions. From all the bank vaults across the globe. And chaos ensues. Yet the phrasing of this wish doesn’t end up getting him what he truly wanted, which was enough money for his family farm to thrive, and for him to buy the same toys as his friends. I couldn’t help but think that, had he phrased his wish with more precision and forethought, to be exactly what he truly meant, it might have gotten him what he wanted without disrupting the whole world.
A similar fate befalls the three children who make wishes in The Wish Giver. Bill Brittain gives them rather careless phrasing for their wishes to get the story rolling. It is a reminder to readers that making a wish for one problem to go away may just bring on a whole new set of problems, and that trying to make all your problems magically disappear is bound to come with a few catches.
Even knowing this lesson, I couldn’t help but play around with how some of the kids could have phrased their wishes. If they’d tweaked their message for clarity and avoided the obvious loopholes or double meanings, would they have gotten what they actually wanted? Having a second opinion to read over the wish before it went out into the world might have at least made it harder for the wish giver to bend their words. I know he would have found some other mischievous way to bring about a silly result, but it doesn’t stop my wishful thinking.
Similarly, having an editor look over your writing may not guarantee all your wishes coming true, but it will help get your message across more clearly and succinctly. It can bring your own writing closer to how you envisioned it. And there’s no tricky magic involved, just know-how and experience.
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