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In thinking about the novel I've written, Athena's Messenger, I realized a long time that one of the characters was an analog for my ex-fiancee. In the story as it lay my main character and this character get married and live happily ever after. (no, that's not the end of the story, a lot more happens after that) This state of affairs has been pressing on my mind since everything went so pear shaped.
When I finished listening to the latest Dresden Files book last weekend I opened the story and resolved to re-work the story so it didn't bother me anymore. I found the key scene I needed around page 122 in a copy of the file, (It had over 350 pages in word, about 95,000 words) and cut everything after that point out into another file. Then I started editing, editing out the marriage, their subsequent life together, and the character. That's right, I killed the character off. It involved a lot of writing, too, since the aftereffects of that would affect many people in the town in question.
I finished this morning. The excised parts I couldn't use resulted in about ten pages. Total pages are around 417, and word count is around 119,000. That gives me the freedom to cut the suggested 20% and still come in around 100,000 words. But more importantly my main character goes through a lot more, has more opportunities to find herself, and find another love later on. And I'm a lot happier with the book.
Editing this was a hard process for me. I had to revisit a lot of feelings while working on it, feelings of love lost and of recrimination and pain regarding love relationships -- not just this one, but most of the ones I've had. Dodging three bullets in a row gets wearying, and though I know the old platitude that there's someone for everyone, That doesn't bear out in either experience or statistical theory. Of course, some people are born to walk alone, I guess, and I can do that, even though it's not my preferred lifestyle.
But it's done, and next comes the proofing. First I'll run the obligatory spell and grammar check. Then I'll do a line edit and see how it turns out. Then I'll make it available for others to look at. (If you want to be one of those folks, let me know in a comment with a valid email address)
Now comes the editing of one of the ancillary stories. It centered around a section in the original version, so it'll need a lot of changes to make it reflect the way things go in the main story now that the character was edited out.
Ah, the creative process. Such fun.
When I finished listening to the latest Dresden Files book last weekend I opened the story and resolved to re-work the story so it didn't bother me anymore. I found the key scene I needed around page 122 in a copy of the file, (It had over 350 pages in word, about 95,000 words) and cut everything after that point out into another file. Then I started editing, editing out the marriage, their subsequent life together, and the character. That's right, I killed the character off. It involved a lot of writing, too, since the aftereffects of that would affect many people in the town in question.
I finished this morning. The excised parts I couldn't use resulted in about ten pages. Total pages are around 417, and word count is around 119,000. That gives me the freedom to cut the suggested 20% and still come in around 100,000 words. But more importantly my main character goes through a lot more, has more opportunities to find herself, and find another love later on. And I'm a lot happier with the book.
Editing this was a hard process for me. I had to revisit a lot of feelings while working on it, feelings of love lost and of recrimination and pain regarding love relationships -- not just this one, but most of the ones I've had. Dodging three bullets in a row gets wearying, and though I know the old platitude that there's someone for everyone, That doesn't bear out in either experience or statistical theory. Of course, some people are born to walk alone, I guess, and I can do that, even though it's not my preferred lifestyle.
But it's done, and next comes the proofing. First I'll run the obligatory spell and grammar check. Then I'll do a line edit and see how it turns out. Then I'll make it available for others to look at. (If you want to be one of those folks, let me know in a comment with a valid email address)
Now comes the editing of one of the ancillary stories. It centered around a section in the original version, so it'll need a lot of changes to make it reflect the way things go in the main story now that the character was edited out.
Ah, the creative process. Such fun.
