Sorry, Your Services are no Longer Required: Eliminating Characters from Your Novel

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

This week's Refresher Friday takes another look at things to do when you have to cut a character from your novel.

It's not uncommon for the number of characters in a novel to grow as we write that novel. We discover scenes that need extra hands, or a walk-on role turns out to be a fantastic secondary character and gets more page time. Or we're writing a series, and after a few books, we realize the cast list has become unmanageable.

I ran into this while writing the third book in my fantasy trilogy, Darkfall. I had the main characters, the major supporting characters, old characters from book one, added characters from book two, and then all the new characters for book three. Suddenly, the scenes were all way too crowded.

I needed to do a little character pruning, but who got to stay and who had to go?

Should You Cut That Character?

By Margo Kelly, @MargoWKelly

Part of the How They Do It Series

JH: Characters have a way of sneaking into our manuscripts when we're not looking. We need someone to play a role, or do a job, and before we realize it, the story is crawling with people. Sometimes, too many people. Margo Kelly visits the lecture hall today to share an exercise that can help you determine whether or not a character is pulling their weight.

Margo Kelly is a native of the Northwest and currently resides in Idaho. A veteran public speaker, she is now actively pursuing her love of writing. Who R U Really? is her first novel, of which Kirkus Reviews said, “the relationships among characters are well–fleshed out.”

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Take it away Margo...