Characterization

Having a professional editor for North Sea Dawn has been surprisingly fun.  Prior to our first meeting I worried that my editor would bleed red all over my precious manuscript, and then I worried that they wouldn’t have any comments.

     “Well, what did you think?” said the author.

     “It sure was a story. Yep, lots of words,” replied the editor.

The actual experience was pleasantly in-between.  She has been flush with praise where due, and had great criticism that has improved my work.

But now I have a little bit of dread.  In our last session, my editor noted that I was straying a bit depicting one of my main characters.  She was right, for so many reasons, but now I have a bad feeling about our next meeting.  The last section of the book is being edited, and in that is this scene, this awesome, kick-ass, good guy triumphs and gets the girl, villain gets his comeuppance scene.  When I wrote it, I loved it.  I hit the last period and was all like, ‘Yeah! Take that villain!’.

My editor is not going to like it.

This is the first really hard cut I am going to have to make. I’ll have to sacrifice something I loved, that I worked hard on, for the sake of good characterization and the integrity of the story.  It will make North Sea Dawn a better book.

I still love that scene.