Going down
Way back when, I originally had three novels as part of the VIRUS 5 series. Book 1 took place on Tabit. Book 2 took place on Deucado. And Book 3 took place on Earth. But, as I have mentioned numerous times, it became necessary to crush the three novels down into one book which became the modern version of Rome's Revolution.
As I was executing the major surgery required to boil 330,000 words down to a 160,000 word novel, I had to be ruthless when it came time to throwing things away. One of the casualties of this process was discarding the scene where Rei goes down to the Deucadon's underground city to meet with the leader of the Deucadons whose name was Bukky.
I had constructed a fairly detailed description of the trip down below the surface and the wonders of a people living underground but other than being interesting, it didn't move the plot along in the slightest so bye-bye. I replaced the whole scene with just a phone call from Melloy to Bukky and accomplished the same goal.
Even though I was cavalier about it, I was sad because I did spend a lot of time building an underground world. The whole 2,000-word plus section was put away.
Luckily for me, The Ark Lords came along. Once Rome had made her mind up to build her library, she had to go and visit all the peoples of Deucado including the Deucadons. In Chapter 4 of that book, she goes down to the underground city to meet with Bukky to get what amounts to a thumb drive with all the accumulated knowledge of the Deucadons.
Well, guess where I got the material to describe what Rome saw? Yup, the deleted scene! I recycled it. It certainly saved me from having to figure the whole thing out again!
As I was executing the major surgery required to boil 330,000 words down to a 160,000 word novel, I had to be ruthless when it came time to throwing things away. One of the casualties of this process was discarding the scene where Rei goes down to the Deucadon's underground city to meet with the leader of the Deucadons whose name was Bukky.
I had constructed a fairly detailed description of the trip down below the surface and the wonders of a people living underground but other than being interesting, it didn't move the plot along in the slightest so bye-bye. I replaced the whole scene with just a phone call from Melloy to Bukky and accomplished the same goal.
Even though I was cavalier about it, I was sad because I did spend a lot of time building an underground world. The whole 2,000-word plus section was put away.
Luckily for me, The Ark Lords came along. Once Rome had made her mind up to build her library, she had to go and visit all the peoples of Deucado including the Deucadons. In Chapter 4 of that book, she goes down to the underground city to meet with Bukky to get what amounts to a thumb drive with all the accumulated knowledge of the Deucadons.
Well, guess where I got the material to describe what Rome saw? Yup, the deleted scene! I recycled it. It certainly saved me from having to figure the whole thing out again!
No comments have been added yet.
Tales of the Vuduri
Tidbits and insights into the 35th century world of the Vuduri.
- Michael Brachman's profile
- 21 followers
