Well, last week on the roller coaster ride of my writing, I've been swept away with edits on Searcher. But, the good news is I'm nearly finished with the 50 page section that I've been rewriting from scratch. (Woot!) So I'm getting closer. Though, I probably will hit the One Year Anniversary of working on this baby. Yowzers.
Anyway, among many changes, one change in particular has taken me by surprise. Basically, I've murdered one of my central characters and replaced him with a younger, sexier model. Cruel! Though I must admit, it's rather fun. See, at first I thought I was just going to spruce this guy up, shave his beard, make him ten years younger, pump up his biceps, etc. But as I started to do that, I realized that the whole character was wrong.
So I killed him. Send in the new guy!
Trust me gals, this one's much more . . . interesting. (read: hot) And he's definitely a different person from the man I replaced him with. His whole personality is different. Its kind of strange. Now instead of a few changes in that fifty page chunk, I'll have to go and rewrite every single scene with him. A lot of work, but I'm confident it will be much, much better.
Has this ever happened to you? Have you ever gotten to the editing phase and realized that an entire character needed to be replaced?
15 comments:
Ren...WHO IS IT???????? Is it Dagan?
Anywho, I am anxious to read your revisied version :)
Oh and I hope you make it through the day without any chipped teeth or other fun adventures :)
Cheers!
Oh, heh, sorry I probably should have said who for those of you that have read it.
It's Owen Keplar. A younger, hot Owen. (*mini-swoon*) :)
I'm always up for new, hot men. What's not to love?
I don't usually replace entire characters, but I do end up combining characters a lot. For instance, if I realize that the character who did event A and the character who did event B could really be combined into one character, I'll nix the least-important character and give the other one both events. Kind of like corporate downsizing.
You replaced Owen?!?!?!?! With a hot new young Owen?!?!?!?! I am all confused and excited. It feels like that dream I always have where a young Peter Coyote bursts into the kitchen and......I mean...oops said too much :) :)
Sara-Yeah, I've done that before. It usually is like, "Oh yeah, why didn't I think of that before?" :)
Diana-LOL! Oh Diana, Diana, Diana. Does Gary know about this sick obsession? :)
Here: Just for you
YOWZA! Thanks for the eye can-daaaaay!
Gary does not know yet. He is still coming to terms with my love of Bronco Mendenhall and Lebron James....Poor Gar, and he is not allowed to have crushes:)
Nice pic Ren...you are too kind to your twin...
And Oh Dunna...Peter Coyote...ahh, the yearning you have felt in your pure young heart since you first saw his dapper, 75 year old face...that mature twinkle in his crinkly eye...his leathery hands caressing your blushing, youthful cheek...gasp!
Hmmph! And ya'll thought I had issues!!!! :)
I'm so excited, Ren! I think it's a brilliant idea, and it takes a lot of courage to do!
I have cut characters—like poor Darby. I have also changed personalities a bit too. I think it comes from not knowing a character as well. Sometimes they won't open up, but then they do and you see how much better it could be.
Kind of. I changed a lot about the unicorn character in Flute. She got a new name, a totally different attitude and a pregnancy. It was good for the book, but it was a pain to write. :)
I don't think I've completely changed a character yet, but I have considered cutting major character completely out. We'll see if I have the courage to do it when the time comes.
I did something similar with a character in my current WIP.
One of my male characters started off in his late 20's but then I realised it would be more interesting if there was some tension between him and my MC.
Since it's YA (and MC is 17) I had to make him younger. It was a surpirse because I thought someone else was going to be my MC's love interest but she had other ideas. Now she's stuck in an awkward love triangle.
Silly girl.
I have never cut characters within in the context of a story, however I have cut entire stories and just kept the titles. Then, I rewrote the manuscripts completely differently.
Love the name Owen.
shelley
Becca- don't be a hater :)
ooh, natalie has a new picture. I hope I never have to change my number one male. I love him too much. Don't make me sad.
Natalie- I've done that too. The funny thing with Owen is, I really did know him well, but I just realized that he wasn't right.
Miriam-Yeah, pregnancy will change someone's personality alright. :)
Candice-It is rough, but the story feels so much smoother in the end, that it's worth it.
Jade-That sounds a lot like my situation. Except my dude was in his late thirties . . . so yeah, I guess it was a little creepy to have him crushing on my 17 year old MC. Hence my murdering him.
Shelly-lol, yeah I've done that too, though I've only ever had one title that rocked. The rest were quite disposable to me. :)
Jessie-You mean brooding Spaniard? Definitely don't change him. Definitely. :)
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