Ouch.
I did my readthrough of WAVERLEY yesterday. I wasn’t entranced by the opening chapter, which will need a thorough re-write and in-depth trimming.
The rest of the beginning chapters were good for a first draft. I even had some nice character building going on. It was all a fairly good match to the movie that’s been playing in my head.
And then the tale began to go wonky. The vision I had then just doesn’t match the vision I have now.
The result? I kept 20,300 words. And there are three chapters which I will rewrite, so some of it will be salvaged. But the rest of the novel?
Ziiiiip. 33,000 words pitched into the Deleted Scenes file (for “just in case”).
The good thing is, I can start working on it again now. I know why I felt so stymied and unable to get back to the writing. Now everything is a whole lot clearer.
Now to see if I can pull this one off. WAVERLEY is a story that’s been near and dear to my imagination for quite a while now. When it went off track, it went majorly off track. But it’s back on track now.
I think. I hope!
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{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }
Oh I’m so glad you kept a “just in case” file!!!!!!!
I don’t think I could have done it without keeping those words someplace, just in case!
Hurrah to being on track! I bet you’ll be able to use those deleted scenes sometime, somewhere else.
.-= Janel´s last blog ..Mind Shots: The Beginning =-.
I hope I can use snippets of them – I think mostly I feel much better having them there just in case I wake up tomorrow thinking “oh no! What did I just do? Why did I cut out all those scenes???”
WOW — I cannot imagine what courage it took to delete so many words that you worked so hard to write in the first place. Good for you for making tough decisions for the sake of quality.
I like the idea of having a ‘deleted scenes” folder though. I will file that information away for future reference.
.-= Molly´s last blog ..BTT – Snowy Reading =-.
I felt quite despondent last night, Molly. Went to bed thinking, “I can’t write fiction … I can’t write fiction”. But I feel much better today about things. So at least I got a whole lot of clarity out of this.
But I don’t want to have to do this again!
Can I get a big round of applause for being back on track? How about a “Hell ya!”
Wow, you nuked 30k words? I’m not sure I written that much in my life. That takes guts in my book and I am glad the “movie” is going to start playing the way you envisioned.
.-= Steve´s last blog ..Sticks and Stones =-.
Thanks, Steve. At least today I feel like I can still write this thing, that it was only that it got derailed. Didn’t quite feel like that yesterday!
Good luck with your snipping and tucking! It is really a major operation you have performed there. I hope it will help you to get on with it.
.-= Dorte H´s last blog ..P for Palmström =-.
I’ve never done this before, Dorte. I’ve always liked everything that I wrote when I put it down for a while and then reread it. So it was a bit of a shock finding that once I got past a certain point, the story didn’t grip me. Then I took a good look and saw that it wasn’t actually the story I was wanting to write.
I think that would be so difficult to do!
.-= Kathy´s last blog ..Our Life in France – banking, money and numbers =-.
Ouch is right! Good luck on the rewrite. I envy your courage.
.-= Barbara´s last blog ..DEEP CREEK by Dana Hand =-.
That is one big snip! I held my breath until you said you saved them in another file. Phew. Even if I never look at it, I feel better having those snippets securely saved in a file
I’m sure the story will flow for you now you know where you’re headed
.-= Jemi Fraser´s last blog ..Happiness is… =-.
Hey! That’s *my* job! Good for you for having the courage.
.-= Beth F´s last blog ..From Biologist to Author: A Visit with Sneed B. Collard III =-.
Slashing is painful, yet it’s amazing how it gets the story going in the right direction. I’m glad you had the courage!
.-= Cathryn´s last blog ..Grammar – 1, Communication – 0 =-.
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