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| He has nothing to do with killing anything, but a cute guy with a book on his head is awesome. |
1. Edit out the excess words not needed in the story
2. Get rid of the excess characters in the story. Not
everyone in the first draft makes it to the second.
3. In order to add drama to the story, kill one of the main
characters.
4. This one's the most drastic and too painful to think about. When you need to kill a whole book. Why oh why?
For my latest WIP, The Dream Maker, I had every intention of doing
the third. I went into the book knowing I was going to kill off the heroine’s
favorite patient who happened to be the hero’s niece. It would be easy to do
because she’s been diagnosed with ovarian cancer.
Do you know how hard it is to kill off a beloved character? I
really liked this young lady. A lot. Her name is Vanessa and she’s an intelligent smart ass. Plus she likes to stick her nose into everyone’s
business, like when she helps to set up the hero and heroine. But the thing I
enjoyed most about her is that she enjoys life and doesn’t want to disturb
anyone with the pain she’s feeling about being diagnosed with cancer.
Oh my goodness I love Vanessa. So do you think I was able to
kill of this darling? Um…I’m not telling. You’ll have to wait until the book
comes out to see. It was a difficult decision, but I think the one I made
turned out well for the story.
What about you? Any darlings in your novels that you’ve had
to kill which gutted you to do so?
