Wednesday 13 June 2012

Death by a Thousand Cuts

The WIP has a glaring problem and it looks as if I'll have no option but to get rid of several thousand words.What should I do with them? Delete them? Or copy them to a new folder in the hope that one day they may prove useful?
What's worse, I'll have to dispatch a character I'd grown rather fond of, but as she's making absolutely no contribution to the action, she has to go. She's a sparky person and there's always the chance she'll fight back by cropping up somewhere else, so no doubt I should be ruthless.
Do others find this difficult to do - edit out chunks that at the time of writing the first draft you considered well written and pertinent?
Ah well, enough procrastination,here goes........

8 comments:

  1. Definitely keep all the cut bits in another file - especially that sparky character and use her somewhere else! My sympathies with the rewrite - I suspect I'll be joining you soon if I could get on and finish mine!

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  2. Thanks for the advice,Rosemary.I'll hope to use her somewhere else!

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  3. Ah yes - it's always so sad when you have to cut work you've slaved over and killing a character is even worse! I woyuld definitely keep it all though. You never know when it might be just what you need on a future book!

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  4. The way I'm feeling at the moment about this WIP, it may be my last!

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  5. Cut and keep - definitely, Myra. Store your excised bits in a well labelled file and there you have x words of another novel.

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  6. Now all I have to do is remember where they are!

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  7. Agree with everyone else- keep the bits you're cutting and the character as you can use them in another piece of work (particularly the character - I had a strong character appear in a book I never finished writing and she then re-appeared in a short story years later!)

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  8. Thanks for all this good advice -I know she's only 'resting' now rather than having disappeared!

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