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Write the novel you want or clip a few scenes?

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Alli B.

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So, if anyone else was asking this question, I'd cheer, "Write what you want!" I believe in that, but I also believe that you shouldn't have writing that is so... everywhere either.

To be a bit more specific, I am writing a gritty fantasy story. But I had a very specific list of things I wanted to include. I keep pushing/rearranging scenes that I'm not sure will work anymore with pretty glistening mermaids, and although I wanted them, I don't think my story has a place for them. How have you handled a similar situation in the past?
 

BethS

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So, if anyone else was asking this question, I'd cheer, "Write what you want!" I believe in that, but I also believe that you shouldn't have writing that is so... everywhere either.

To be a bit more specific, I am writing a gritty fantasy story. But I had a very specific list of things I wanted to include. I keep pushing/rearranging scenes that I'm not sure will work anymore with pretty glistening mermaids, and although I wanted them, I don't think my story has a place for them. How have you handled a similar situation in the past?

I snip them out, and if I'm very fond of them, I save them in a file somewhere.

Maybe you'll be able to use them in another story--and maybe you won't--but they for sure don't seem belong in this one, not if your instincts are telling you they don't fit.
 
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Layla Nahar

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... I don't think my story has a place for them. How have you handled a similar situation in the past?

If something is a bad fit, if it breaks the pace/flow, if it is superfluous and keeping it in the story compromises the story, I cut it. Story is king, right?
 

Alli B.

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I'm not saying there's no way, but I certainly haven't figured out how. I've been racking my brain (sadly for a few months). I've even written the scenes including my original plan. I don't like it. It's not the writing, but moreso the placement and how different it is from the majority of the book.
 

Lissibith

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I guess the question I'd ask is, are you writing the story you want and using the right ideas for the job, or are you writing the collection of ideas you want and trying to cobble together a story that makes them work together?

If it's the latter (and it sounds like it is) I'd say step back. Decide on the *story.* Then see if it has a place for all the ideas you want. If not, they're wonderful seeds for your next story!
 

Lhowling

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I guess the question I'd ask is, are you writing the story you want and using the right ideas for the job, or are you writing the collection of ideas you want and trying to cobble together a story that makes them work together?

If it's the latter (and it sounds like it is) I'd say step back. Decide on the *story.* Then see if it has a place for all the ideas you want. If not, they're wonderful seeds for your next story!

I second the above comment. Also, what do you plan to do with the story once it's done?

If it's just something to write to sharpen your writing skills with no real intention to publish (yet), then yeah you can write what you want. But obviously work on telling the story first, rather than try and cram ideas into what may look like a story.

If you plan on getting it published, realize that part of this writing process has to do with getting it ready for an audience. You have to write for them. That means looking for books that have a similar voice or might be similar in genre, figuring out how the writer refined his or her ideas for the market, and researching the publishers to see if your work would make a good fit. To do this means to compromise what you think might work with what people actually want to read.
 
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Jamesaritchie

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So, if anyone else was asking this question, I'd cheer, "Write what you want!" I believe in that, but I also believe that you shouldn't have writing that is so... everywhere either.

To be a bit more specific, I am writing a gritty fantasy story. But I had a very specific list of things I wanted to include. I keep pushing/rearranging scenes that I'm not sure will work anymore with pretty glistening mermaids, and although I wanted them, I don't think my story has a place for them. How have you handled a similar situation in the past?

For me, "Write what you want" means writing the best possible novel. Why wants to write a novel that's crap? Who wants to keep things in a novel that harms the story?
 

Neegh

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Stories want to be written in the way they want to be written. If you have scenes that just don't seem to fit the story, then don't include them. Your story will reward you by coming together even better than before.
 

Religion0

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If you can't find a way to make it fit, then you have to kill you darling. One of my former teachers was very into that, having us write a text and then have us strike out lines that we really liked, just to see if it didn't actually improve the story. It didn't always, but sometimes it did do a lot for it. And no one says stricken works have to be deleted forever, they might just belong in another story.

Anyway, have you tried turning it over to a beta reader? I find they can be very helpful in determining what feels off, what needs to changed, and what needs to go. They might even come back and say "You know that mermaid scene? I feel it'd do much better if it was here instead. After all of this happened, because that'd give this character a chance to really reflect and grow or something." At which point you will slam your face into the nearest available surface because it seems obvious now that they've pointed it out, I idiot!
 

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or are you writing the collection of ideas you want and trying to cobble together a story that makes them work together?

This approach is how you get "Sucker Punch."
 

ash.y

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I think there's plenty of room to be creative. There's bound to be a way to make the mermaids fit with the rest of the story.

Though if they're going to be included, their role will have to be strategic. There probably shouldn't be entire chapters devoted to a race that has nothing to do with the plot, for example. But it sounds like tone is the problem, not necessarily their role in the story. Or is it both?

If it's both, you very well may need to cut them entirely and save them for another book.
 

Jamesaritchie

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Stories want to be written in the way they want to be written. If you have scenes that just don't seem to fit the story, then don't include them. Your story will reward you by coming together even better than before.

Stories do not exist until after they're written, and they want nothing. They're just inanimate objects. Writers do all the wanting, not the stories.
 

ctina

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I usually have a bunch of Word documents:

One has the scenes I've written either before really delving into the main work--because these scenes were the most vivid in my head and I just had to get them down.

Another document has the main manuscript and I only add in the "scenes" when I get to that place.

The saddest file is one I usually create during editing, where I place scenes and ideas I had to cut, just so that way they're not gone forever. It's a little less painful because I feel like I can add them back in if I want--it's just cut and paste.

If you love a concept, but it doesn't fit in the story you're telling, maybe you can make that concept its own story?
 

Shadow_Ferret

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So, if anyone else was asking this question, I'd cheer, "Write what you want!" I believe in that, but I also believe that you shouldn't have writing that is so... everywhere either.

To be a bit more specific, I am writing a gritty fantasy story. But I had a very specific list of things I wanted to include. I keep pushing/rearranging scenes that I'm not sure will work anymore with pretty glistening mermaids, and although I wanted them, I don't think my story has a place for them. How have you handled a similar situation in the past?

I do write the novel I want. If I want mermaids, then I write mermaids. If it turns out the mermaids are getting everything all mildewy, then I cut them out and replace them with fauns. And if the fauns start pooping everywhere, they get replaced.
 

Roxxsmom

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If something isn't working for your story, you cut it. That's what the term "kill your darlings" means, I believe. Not that something you love in your story must automatically be removed, but it's a caution that we sometimes get so attached to certain scenes or story elements that we can't admit that they're bogging us down.

I keep a huge file with all my killed darling scenes. Some of them may be useful in something else I write. Or maybe not. But they're nice to have someplace where I can find them. Cool to see how my writing's evolved too.
 

blacbird

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To be a bit more specific, I am writing a gritty fantasy story. But I had a very specific list of things I wanted to include. I keep pushing/rearranging scenes that I'm not sure will work anymore with pretty glistening mermaids, and although I wanted them, I don't think my story has a place for them.

You just answered your own question.

How have you handled a similar situation in the past?

Never occurred to me to force a concept into a story where it didn't belong. Nor do i expect it ever to be an issue. If I want to write a story about mermaids, I think about writing a story about what mermaids do, and go from there. If I'm writing a story about a particularly vile and subtle form of vampire (I've done that), I'm not even momentarily tempted to include some mermaids, just because I might think mermaids cool.

caw
 
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gilesth

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In my experience, the best thing to do may be removing the mermaids. Unless you can make them fit the tone of the rest of the book.

It always sucks pulling out my favorite parts of a story, but the sting is soothed somewhat by the idea that the book itself is better for the loss. Don't overthink it, make the story work one way or the other, and whatever gets taken out, find comfort in the fact that the exercise, no matter where it "finishes," gets you closer to future publication. :D
 

lizmonster

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I removed my very favorite line of ever from my book. It broke my heart. But the book didn't want it, so out it went.

If you're feeling like your mermaids are shoehorned in, that probably means they're shoehorned in. You don't have to rule out the possibility of using them, but given what you've said, you may want to see how the book feels without them.
 

blacbird

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Jamming the mermaids into the story just because you dig mermaids is akin to putting habañero peppers on your morning French toast just because you dig habañeros.

caw
 

rwm4768

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Maybe you could write another book that includes the mermaids. If they feel forced to you, they'll surely feel forced to the reader.

Or maybe the pretty, glistening mermaids are actually evil creatures.
 

Putputt

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If something isn't working for your story, you cut it. That's what the term "kill your darlings" means, I believe. Not that something you love in your story must automatically be removed, but it's a caution that we sometimes get so attached to certain scenes or story elements that we can't admit that they're bogging us down.

I keep a huge file with all my killed darling scenes. Some of them may be useful in something else I write. Or maybe not. But they're nice to have someplace where I can find them. Cool to see how my writing's evolved too.

Yuh, this is what I do. I'm a pretty ruthless cutter. I save the cut stuff in a folder, but usually I forget they were even there before, which just goes to show how little they mean to me once I let go of them.
 

Roxxsmom

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Yuh, this is what I do. I'm a pretty ruthless cutter. I save the cut stuff in a folder, but usually I forget they were even there before, which just goes to show how little they mean to me once I let go of them.

Me too, though I ran across one of these folders a while ago, and lost an hour or two of precious writing time poring through it. Kind of like finding a box of stuff you'd forgotten to unpack last time you moved. Not all that long ago, I discovered a box of dishes in the garage that had been there for years. There wasn't room for them in our kitchen cupboards, I think, so we just forgot about them when we moved into this house.

Whoa, analogy run amok :D
 

Reziac

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I'm not saying there's no way, but I certainly haven't figured out how. I've been racking my brain (sadly for a few months). I've even written the scenes including my original plan. I don't like it. It's not the writing, but moreso the placement and how different it is from the majority of the book.

You've written two different stories in the same manuscript. Instead of fighting it, take the mermaids out and write them their own story. It may intersect with or overlap the main story, and if so that's perfectly fine (many SF/F series do that).
 
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