Fine to Change Characters #Redrafting

 

The pleasurable thing about redrafting is altering the plot, subplots, characters, and locations after you know your ending. It’s become clear to me that some chapters in Novel 10 (WIP) were stagnant in some locations, or the plot dragged without any urgency or reason for standing still. The first sign of my eyeballs rolling is a bad sign, and writers shouldn’t be complacent with hoping that a reader will forgive them.

Readers rarely do.

Other than scything the plot in places, and kicking the world into new settings, I had second thoughts about a sub-character. In this case, the dad. Although he’s a minor subC, and is largely absent for the second half of the novel, his presence plays with my protagonist’s thoughts.

Put it this way – he’s the dad, and he’s not the dad – or not in the eyes of the protagonist.

I didn’t want ‘Dad’ to have this overarching control over the protagonist, but I did need him to have influence. There had to be an element of hatred from the protagonist to Dad, and some belonging, because without the dad there’s no other family member to rely upon.

Confusing…

An option was to turn the dad into an uncle – but the uncle v nephew scenario has been done to death in YA.

Instead I opted to convert dad into a stepdad. Again, that scenario has been played out many times, though it fit with the disharmony between the two. There is no evil intent with the character, except that he isn’t a blood relation to the protagonist. I can still throw elements of respect and family into the mix, as well as arguments of why the protagonist has a right to challenge the stepdad.

It’s the whole – “You’re not my real dad” scenario – but in a far less soap-opera dramatical manner. Think of a robin realising that the cuckoo brother is different for reasons other than consuming a radioactive worm.

Trust me – it’s given me freedom to explore alternate thought processes, and make the concerns that both parties have about one another – a little more believable.

PS – the novel is a Science Fiction YA. Just goes to show that the important things aren’t always the robots, the devices, the automatic-extending walking canes, or the smartphone capable of holographic projection. Characters and their relationships hold the strings of reality that readers need, otherwise why would the reader care about their lives?

PPS – there are no radioactive worms in this novel.