Saying Goodbye: Knowing when and how to cut a character

Hi guys, and welcome back to Too Many Books to Count! I’m so glad you stopped by. This month, we’ve been spending some time talking about editing. We’ve been discussing those dreaded first drafts, and all the things we need to train our eyes to find when it comes to editing all those words we’ve finally finished compiling into a full manuscript.

I, of all people, know how stressful it is to do this one. I know how hard it is, I know how awful it feels when I have to do it, and I know how dreadful that moment is, when you realize it has to be done.

Unnecessary Characters

You knew this one had to be coming, didn’t you? Of course you did. Every so often, there’s a character written in the first draft, who really doesn’t need to be there. A character who’s… well, they’re just unnecessary and need to be cut from the story.

Not a fun thing to do. I know it. You know it. But it does need to be done, from time to time. In fact, I’ve had it happen four or five times. It never gets any easier. Ever. I might go so far as to say that it gets more difficult, honestly, because it’s such a pain to do—and it’s always hard to say goodbye to a character we’ve already spent so much time with.

But how do we know when a character is unnecessary?

I’ll tell you, using the best example I have: Vyria, from Mynidd: People of the Hills.

If you’ve read this book, I’m sure you’re thinking, “But Vyria's barely in that book!” And you’d be right. That’s because she was unnecessary, and at the last minute, I cut her from the manuscript (almost completely, to the point that she only has a name because sentences would've been awkward if she didn't).

She was a Mynidd character, if you hadn’t guessed. I’d designed her to be the character who most interacts with humanity, the character who first meets Aeronwen and the brothers, the character who would be pivotal in the Mynidd’s attempts to bring humanity into an understanding of the Vartes. Somehow, in all those pages, she turned into a weird little character who hardly did anything and was always thinking more than acting. She was always there, always in the background, but she didn’t do much. In fact, everything important she did could easily have been done by another character: Nywinn. You’ll all know her name, I trust, if you’ve read the book.

Nywinn is a protector of the Mynidd, a stronger character than Vyria was, and a much bigger personality on the page than Vyria could ever have hoped to be. But I loved Vyria so much that it wasn’t until near the end of editing that I realized I’d goofed with her, that she really didn’t need to be there at all.

It’s probably one of the most difficult things to do as an editor, to cut out a character but maintain some of their scenes using a different character. I know, because I’ve done it. Because Vyria and Nywinn ended up molding into a completely new character, a character now named Nywinn, who turned out far better than either of them could’ve done on their own.

And that’s why we do it. Our story is stronger, if we don’t have characters who just stand there and do nothing. If a character has a name, they need to have a point, a reason for being there. Otherwise they’re just another name to draw reader’s attention away from the information at hand. That’s really the last thing we need.

[love]

{Rani Divine}