Welcome to the romance Writers Weekly blog hop, where every week a great group of romance writers answer questions and accept challenges. Diverse in what we write, we are unified in the quest to bring you, the romance reader, a very happy ever after.
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If you’ve wondered in from Jo Richardson’s wonderful blog or are starting your tour with me, welcome to a day filled with what we lost in the editing process. And hey, have you read Jo’s wonderful Cookie Cutter. It’s an awesome read.
Today’ s challenge comes from the author of the incredible Love in London series, Carrie Elks – Stephen King famously said that it’s necessary to ‘kill your darlings’ when editing your work. Do you have anything you had to remove from a book that you’re still proud of? Or something that embarrasses you so much it will never again see the light of day? If you’re feeling really brave, share some of it with us!
Oh the pain. Hours of hard work gone forever with the push of the <Delete> key. It hurts. But the old saying “What does not kills you, makes you stronger.” certainly did prevail during my editing of Son of Thunder.
It was my first full novel and I over wrote it. My editor wanted a lean, mean romance. “We can most of these three chapters.”
Three. Freaking. Chapters.
But she was right. It was mostly extra story that didn’t need to be in the book. A huge battle scene on Mount Olympus. Also a discovery deep in the catacombs under the mountain, and a fun character I’d spent hours researching and putting together.
Highlight.
Cut.
Gone. (Ouch!)
Wait a moment! New document. Paste. Save. (You never know.)
Now, some years later I’ve finally gotten around to the sequel: Daughter of Darkness. As I write I’m thinking about those deleted scenes. Okay, the battle on Mount Olympus moves to North Carolina, and needs some heavy editing and name changing, but for the most part, it’s back and better than ever.
And then, when Tyr and Nott find their way to Olympus, they finally uncover that secret in the catacombs . . . and Hephaestus lives (kind of) and is now an integral part of the main storyline.
Of course my editor hasn’t seen it yet. Will these scenes make the final cut this time?
We’ll see.
So, what did Leslie Hachtel edit out of her work? Find out as the Romance Writers Weekly blog continues at: http://lesliehachtelwriter.wordpress.com
A Writer's Haven 
Reblogged this on NEVA BROWN & BOOKS.
Thanks for Reblog. ♥
I write in erotica, so thankfully I don’t have to kill anyone off. : )
Ah you lucky lady. ♥
🙂
I put my deleted scenes on WATTPAD sometimes. It takes some to the sting out of it
I do have to check out WATTPAD one of these days.
TOtally agree about putting them into a word doc and saving them for another time Steven. You never know!
Though looking at how much my writing has changed in the past few years, and how much editing it took to reuse these scenes, I might have been better off writing them from scratch.
Oh yes, nothing is ever truly deleted. I keep everything, in some for or another. It’s a habit I’ve formed as a songwriter. =)
I just had this vision of publishing one huge, disjointed, incomprehensible novel filled with all my extras.
I hope the scene makes it into the sequel. I had a scene I thought was hilarious and my editor wanted it cut, so I slipped into the next book, changed a few names. It was cut again. 😦 Someday- those will see the light- I’m sure of it.
I’ve made it an integral part of the plot, so there’s no way she can cut it…I hope.
I love the concept of recycling! I’m going to start digging through my discarded words! Great post 🙂
And it’s good for the Earth. 🙂
Good for you, Stephen! Never let a good scene go unused. I’m sure your recycled bits, reused and rewritten, are better than the originals!
Open new document, paste, save = resuscitation for a dying scene or chapter. 🙂 I do this a lot. Probably will never used most of them ever again but it hurts to much to delete them forever.