But I Really Liked That Chapter…

Yes, I'm aware that nearly a week has passed since my last blog post.  There are a few reasons for the delay.  Blizzard cleanup, the flu bug hitting my wife and daughter, causing my daughter to miss two days of school last week, and the Packers playing and winning the Super Bowl on Sunday all contributed to just one writing session in the last six days.

But it was with great anticipation that I sat down on Monday morning, ready to write Chapter 17.  This was the chapter I'd planned in my head while shoveling the mountains of snow deposited by the blizzard last week.  I can't tell you how good it felt to actually write – the dialogue and action surprises that happen along the way, getting the action that needs to happen down on paper.  About three hours after I began, I had a 2,500 word chapter that I really liked.

I got up and drove around and did a few errands, to get away from the material long enough to have somewhat fresh eyes when I sat down to transcribe it later that afternoon.

Then a funny thing happened.

As I was shopping for groceries, I realized quite clearly that what I had Faye do in the chapter I'd just written was something she would never do.  It was out of character, literally.  She'd needed to find a piece of information, but the way she went about it in the chapter, while completely believable and by no means illegal, violated some of her most firmly held beliefs.

So, what to do?  The entire premise of the chapter was that Faye learned something valuable about a primary character during a session with a secondary character, in a very entertaining way.  Do I keep the chapter in?  Rewrite it?  Scrap it?

I thought about it a long time, but I didn't really need to.  I knew almost as soon as I realized there was a problem that the chapter had to go.  Couldn't use it.  To do so would be to violate the trust I'd built with the reader that Faye was who she was.

So, I never transcribed the chapter.  Instead, I went back to the Chapter Sequence Summary and rearranged the chapters so that Faye finds out the information she needs about the primary character from the primary character himself, which is exactly what Faye would do.

So the lesson learned?  Sometimes, even though you love what you wrote, it needs to end up on the cutting room floor.  Maybe I'll get the chance to use a scene or two from the chapter later in this book, or in the next book, or in a short story.  Maybe not.  But the important thing is to preserve the integrity of the character.  That's the only way this book has a chance of being great.

I may not be blogging as regularly, and if that happens I'll be sure to let you know why right here in this column.  In the meantime, read something today that makes you laugh!  It's a great way to keep warm.  Thanks for reading.  -Jon