Sacrificing a Scene You Like for a Scene You Need

I just wrote a great scene. I introduced fun new characters, some cool shit for them to blow up, a whole mess of awesome.

It’s gotta go.

Doen’t fit. What I need instead of all my new shiny toys is a quiet word from a entirely different fellow, a much less engaging character, but one who, ultimately, will be more relevant to the theme of the novel.

I know, this is all unduly mysterious. It comes down to this: I have to sacrifice a scene I like for a scene the book needs. I think I finally, finally understand that annoying injunction, “kill your darlings.”

Yeah, yeah. I get it. The darlings are now gutted corpses on the cutting room floor. Are you satisfied, you bloodthirsty Muse?

Has this ever happened to you? What do you do with the chopped scenes? Personally, I hope to resurrect them in some other context.

Another Cool Quote from the Mahabharata

“She fell into a swoon and the five brothers caught her, as the five senses, attached to their object, catch their pleasure.”

32,745 words

Contractions in Punctuation?

This may be a matter of voice or style… but do you use contractions in your prose?

Old Books Sucked

Poor techniques used in old books.

New Genres in the Twentieth Century

Name the number of genres of literature that existed in the Nineteenth Century.

Now name the number of genres in the Twentieth Century.

Now guess how many might come to exist in the Twenty-first.

Sugar ‘n’ Spicing Up My Heroine

Earlier I mentioned the need to add some flavor to my vanilla yogurt hero. I think I succeeded. I’ve certainly been having a great deal of fun writing his scenes.

The heroine’s scenes, not so much, despite some great battles. I realized the battles were falling flat because we didn’t know enough about the heroine to care if she got eaten by Ooze. She was suffering vanilla syndrome. So I’ve added some sugar and spice to her as well — but not everything nice. She needed some flaws too.

Now I’m having a lot more fun with her scenes. What’s especially cool is that the hero and heroine have complementary strengths and weaknesses. She’s prone to tell tall tales; he ferrets out people’s secrets. And so on. I can’t wait until they actually meet. (Yeah, it’s one of those things where we follow them each on their separate paths for a while, until, bam! paths collide.)

I’m also just enjoying being a groove. You know how it is, when the story flows like punch at a potluck. Your fingers fly over the keyboard as fast as flying monkeys and every scene marches into place. And you feel like, oh yeah, this is why I write. Why did I ever think I could give this up? Why would I ever want to do anything else?

O Laundry Stacked Three Baskets High, I see you looking at me with those puppy-dog eyes, but you’ll just have to wait. I have a city to besiege! Bwahahahaha!

Wordcount: 24,541