A lot of my recent work on my novel has had to do with sorting out secondary characters and figuring out if and how their stories serve the main plot.
I did a lot of work to revise one of these characters, to try to help her fit, but it turns out she's still getting the axe. It should simplify things. I can always add her back in if I need her, but my instinct is that she's done. She always felt a little tacked on anyway, and she brings up some issues that distract from the main plotline.
I started the bloody work of extracting her from the manuscript on Tuesday, and she's been shrieking a little. It isn't pretty. But ever since I heard Rita Williams-Garcia give a lecture on revision called "There Will Be Blood," I take some pride in allowing this part of the process to be as violent and gory as it feels.
It's kind of like how even though I only eat veggies and seafood, I unleash my inner carnivore whenever I order udon noodle soup with baby squid. You have to crunch down on their whole little bodies to eat them, tough tentacles, rubbery little heads . . . It's satisfying.
So goodbye, child of my brain . . . Crunch, crunch, crunch.
2 comments:
might i suggest, perhaps, putting them inside of curio jars and storing them on a shelf? they might have stories in them still, just not this particular story.
although there is something to be said for feeding off your own creativity...
Crunch, crunch, crunch!
Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm . . .
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