Sunday, January 24, 2010

Throwing the gauntlet down

"My name is Marin the assassin. You cut my character. Prepare to die!"

"About that..." I pick up my editing knife, wondering if it will work against a character already cut from my novel. Best to back away from my desk just in case. "How about coming up with your own dialogue instead of mooching off movies?"

Marin, a muscled assassin wearing a long armored coat loaded with all the weaponry he had on him when he left my novel, scrambles up my chair. "I don't have much choice since you're not writing me anymore, do I?"

He jumps to the desktop and pulls a gun, waving it around. "You've got some nerve! I stood with you through countless rewrites. I went from being dominant, to looking like an incompetent fool. Even then I didn't get all difficult to work with like Delyn did. Yet, you still cut me."

"I wouldn't call you a fool. You got played. That's all."

"Played?" He laughs. "By you or Delyn? You meant to axe me right from the start, didn't you? That's why you didn't even bother giving me a last name."

I look down to see the Barthromians cheering and shaking their fists. "Oh, shut up. None of you even had first names." Where is that pilot, I could really use a little help right now. "Zsmed?"

Ms. Wildstar points under my desk where I can just make out some moaning. "He's busy."

Good grief! Now? Really? I don't even want to know who he's with.

With my editing knife held out like a shield, I make my way toward the door. "Marin, you might notice that I rarely give supporting characters last names."

"You gave him one." He keeps his gun on me as he points beyond the Barthromians to a man sitting alone in the corner sifting through a crate of adverbs. The words very, angrily and violently sit at his feet.

"True." I recognize Nekar Viceres, whom I'd forgotten about. "I cut him a full revision before you though. That should say something positive about you, right?"

"You cut us both, but you at least had the consideration to make him not look like an idiot first."

I notice Nekar watching us. The ex-member of the Pirate Guild stands up, his armored coat also filled with weapons. A wave of hope washes over me. Marin was right, Nekar had been cut on pretty good terms. "Hey, Nekar, how about a little help here?"

"Yeah, Nekar, how about a little help here?" Marin nods toward me.

Nekar kicks the crate of adverbs aside. A flurry of suddenlys goes flying into the hushed crowd of Barthromians. His face splits into a wicked grin. He whips out a gun.

Oh, crud.

10 comments:

  1. :D I always find that keeping the cut characters in a dungeon in the desk drawer helps. But then, I haven't cut many characters, so it might be a little more complicated than that. But you ALWAYS have to take things away from them. They need to be stripped of their powers before going in the discard pile, else they'll have the means to get out again ;) That's why I just kill them off most of the time, as opposed to cutting them completely.

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  2. I was too busy cutting words to give thought to making culled characters harmless.

    Some of them were contained in file folders, but when their numbers swelled over the past three years they broke free and now run amuck with the masses under my desk.

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  3. Ah, yes. The angry cut characters.

    I don't cut a lot of characters, but I find that I do with animals, which is strange. I just edited a horse out of my story the other day...and this morning I found a horsehead in my bed...

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  4. It didn't happen to say anything, did it? Nothing useful, like perphaps where the rest of its body might be so that you don't discover it weeks later?

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  5. I just backtracked you here from Jordan's Croft where I've been having an argument with Leo - he wants me to ditch the 49k words I've got of my WIP for his story.

    He doesn't want to wait.

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  6. Hey Ms Kitty, I stalked you from FTQ. :) If I survive this attack, I can send one of my armed menaces after your Leo.

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  7. Oh, Leo is harmless - I'll send you his link. He's just impatient.

    http://jordanscroft.blogspot.com/2009/08/tempest-in-tea-pot.html

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  8. How did you find me on FTQ?

    I follow Ray via RSS feed and rarely comment.

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  9. ROFL! Yes, Leo is a great guy. I hope you give him some time soon. He sounds fun. Wait... he didn't hear that, did he? I'm sure he doesn't need any encouragement to harass you about getting back to his story.

    You commented on posting Ray's video on your blog. Always curious about other writers who post there, I clicked your name... and poof! The rest is history. :)

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  10. Nah, Leo is too polite to eavesdrop - when my husband is home the rest all scatter.

    I did type up a couple thousand words for his story the other day. He's in a contemporary romance that's steeping in the back of my mind. He appears to be Army CID - a former SF guy who transferred out. I'm going to hook him up with a stay-at-home mother and officer's wife - a widow with a teen-age son who blames her for his father's death.

    Leo will earn his keep.

    Oh, okay - I've seen a spike in my blog traffic in the last week - now I know where it is coming from.

    Glad you like my blog - I've put yours in my RSS feed - it's easier to read as email.

    Later!

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