# Novels finished by someone else **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** books-writing-myths\ **Created:** [November 4, 2021, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-finished-by-someone-else/953802 "2021-11-04T17:28:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2021, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-finished-by-someone-else/953802/21 "2021-11-05T02:12:30Z")
> [@Dropo](#): > > > [@CalMeacham](#): > > > > **Billy Budd** by Herman Melville – I wasn’t aware that this famous title was left unfinished, either. I’ve read some of it. Apparently published in its incomplete state. > > Did not know this and none of the three teachers/professors I had who assigned it ever mentioned this fact. Shame on them! I guess it depends on what you mean by “incomplete”. AFAICT, Billy Budd isn’t exactly an “incomplete” novel in the sense of having a complete beginning part but no ending part, like Austen’s Sanditon or The Watsons. Rather, it was more of a Tolkienesque chaos of revised and expanded versions that the various later editors had to sort out for publication. Everything that happens in every published version of Billy Budd, AFAIK, is something that Melville actually wrote. It’s not as though another novelist took over the job of determining the events of the narrative. ---
**Author:** ![the\_art\_of\_rolling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/59ef9b/32.png) [@the\_art\_of\_rolling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_art_of_rolling)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2021, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-finished-by-someone-else/953802/22 "2021-11-05T12:35:49Z")
Queen by Alex Haley completed by David Stevens. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2021, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-finished-by-someone-else/953802/23 "2021-11-05T15:29:31Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > I read “Poodle Springs”, an unfinished Raymond Chandler novel that Robert Parker finished. > > It wasn’t very good. William Sanders claimed that he recognized the place where Chandler ended and Parker began. Was that obvious to you? ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2021, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-finished-by-someone-else/953802/24 "2021-11-05T15:53:22Z")
I don’t recall seeing a sharp demarcation. But at some point Marlowe began sounding a lot more like Spenser. ---
**Author:** ![BwanaBob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bwanabob/32/2985_2.png) [@BwanaBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BwanaBob)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2021, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-finished-by-someone-else/953802/25 "2021-11-05T17:00:53Z")
Robert Heinlein never completed Variable Star. Spider Robinson finished it based on an 8 page novel outline. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2021, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-finished-by-someone-else/953802/26 "2021-11-05T17:47:56Z")
That’s not “completing,” that’s “writing from scratch.” Heinlein just did the plotting. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2021, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-finished-by-someone-else/953802/27 "2021-11-05T18:14:41Z")
> [@BwanaBob](#): > > Robert Heinlein never completed Variable Star. Spider Robinson finished it based on an 8 page novel outline. Mentioned in the OP as a non-example. ---
**Author:** ![BwanaBob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bwanabob/32/2985_2.png) [@BwanaBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BwanaBob)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2021, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-finished-by-someone-else/953802/28 "2021-11-05T19:45:42Z")
Oops, my mistake, I must have skimmed too lightly. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2021, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-finished-by-someone-else/953802/29 "2021-11-06T20:41:48Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Ed McBain finished the Craig Rice mystery _The April Robins Murder_ after her death. Finally figured out why I thought there was a second half to this. Stuart Palmer was Rice’s good friend. After she sank into alcoholism, he helped her by writing a series of stories combining his Hildegarde Withers with her John J. Malone. Putting two authors’ detectives together was highly unusual for the day and the series was a big enough hit that Palmer kept writing them after Rice’s death. (She contributed maybe an outline or two and a few pages to the originals.) I personally love the weird pairing of opposite personalities. But the funnier connection is that when Palmer died, he left an unfinished Withers novel and that too got completed, by Fletcher Flora, _Hildegarde Withers Makes the Scene_ (1969). Unfortunately, it’s awful. Rice was a beloved character, despite her many flaws. After her death Larry Harris tried to continue the Malone books with _The Pickled Poodles_ (1960), one of the earliest examples of another author openly writing a character. It’s not at all good, though. There was also 1957’s _But the Doctor Died_, which was published under Rice’s name but not one word is in her style. Hint: it’s dreadful. The result is that both Rice and Palmer are almost completely forgotten today despite being first rank stars until the early 1950s. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2021, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-finished-by-someone-else/953802/30 "2021-11-06T21:37:57Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > > [@hogarth](#): > > > > The only unfinished novel I can remember reading is **The Trial** by Kafka… > > As a look at the Wikipedia page I cite will tell you, Kafka never finished **The Castle** , either. > > I haven’t read either of the Kafka novels – all I’ve read of his is _The Metamorphosis_ . I finally found a copy of the original unfinished _Metamorphosis_. The first page read: > _As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into an enormous_… That was it. There were marginal notes (“Schmetterling?” “Possenreißer?” _“roter Hund?”)_ But the rest of the book was blank. Thanks, _“Palác Knih Luxor” Rare Books_ in Prague, hope you’re enjoying my two thousand Czech Korunas… ---
**Author:** ![Morgyn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morgyn/32/3041_2.png) [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2021, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-finished-by-someone-else/953802/31 "2021-11-06T23:22:03Z")
Hmmm. Her first John J. Malone novel is free on Kindle to Prime members. I’ll check it out. Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2021, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-finished-by-someone-else/953802/32 "2021-11-06T23:22:54Z")
> [@digs](#): > > hope you’re enjoying my two thousand Czech Korunas… Sounds like you sent them a crate of cigars. But you make me nostalgic for the time when I was a millionaire in Polish zlotys. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2021, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-finished-by-someone-else/953802/33 "2021-11-07T23:44:34Z")
Continuing on the Czech theme, one of the most significant classical Czech novels is The Good Soldier Švejk. It was completed by a journalist, but the version I bought and read was the incomplete version. And it sort of works as an incomplete story because it’s about a soldier in the first world war, almost in journal format; the writer, Jaroslav Hašek, did survive the war, but died young, before he could complete his planned work. The character is one you could imagine surviving well and living long, or not surviving at all, like so many soldiers and even civilians didn’t. Having no ending, in that context, actually fits better than having someone else complete it. It’s very good. You have to read it bearing in mind that (if you buy the version I did, at least), it barely saw an editor. But some of the imagery has held with me over the 25 years since I read it. The other unfinished novel that I have read the “finished” version of is The Salmon of Doubt, by Douglas Adams. Adams wasn’t the sort of person who planned his novels that much, so Eoin Colfer was more or less going on what notes there were, what Adams had said to his wife and friends, his other stories, and his general style. But it was, more or less, fanfic by a decent writer. And the actual published version had to be cobbled together from drafts that sometimes conflicted (which they are also honest about). It just about hangs together as a novel that is nice to have if you love Douglas Adams, and see where he saw Arthur going. Otherwise, not really. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2021, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-finished-by-someone-else/953802/34 "2021-11-07T23:50:43Z")
> [@BwanaBob](#): > > Robert Heinlein never completed Variable Star. Spider Robinson finished it based on an 8 page novel outline. That one may not be a good example, but Heinlein finished John W. Cambell’s ‘Sixth Column’, but he substantially rewrote it all to remove as many of the racist overtones as he could. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2021, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-finished-by-someone-else/953802/35 "2021-11-07T23:58:17Z")
And even after all that, the story was racist AF. I’m going to offer up _Good Omens_. A bit out of left field, but it originated in a story Neil had. He gave it to Pterry, and magic happened. ---
**Author:** ![SmartAleq](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smartaleq/32/163_2.png) [@SmartAleq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmartAleq)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2021, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-finished-by-someone-else/953802/36 "2021-11-08T00:23:16Z")
_Candles Burning_, an unfinished book by Michael McDowell, finished by Tabitha King. It wasn’t bad. Not as good as her own work but it was worth saving. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2021, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-finished-by-someone-else/953802/37 "2021-11-08T23:50:06Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > I’m going to offer up _Good Omens_ . A bit out of left field, but it originated in a story Neil had. He gave it to Pterry, and magic happened. They wrote it together from beginning to end, didn’t they? Not sure that counts as someone finishing someone else’s novel. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2021, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-finished-by-someone-else/953802/38 "2021-11-09T01:05:08Z")
Neil had the first part. He didn’t know what to do with it, so he sent it out to some people. Pterry is the one who responded and the rest is History. So…maybe. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2021, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-finished-by-someone-else/953802/39 "2021-11-09T01:57:12Z")
Collaborations happen in a thousand ways. However, very few of those include someone else finishing what was started without the originator being involved. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2021, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-finished-by-someone-else/953802/40 "2021-11-09T18:21:44Z")
**Gwendy’s Button Box** , by _Richard Chizmar_ and _Stephen King_. King wrote the beginning, got stuck and busy with other commitments, and got Chizmar to look at it and complete the rest, with feedback from King. Chizmar wrote a sequel (with Forward by King), and another “button box” collaboration novel from them is coming out next year to conclude the “Gwendy Trilogy”. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-finished-by-someone-else/953802.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-finished-by-someone-else/953802.md?page=3)