You know when your own cast of characters becomes too tough to track that something is wrong and someone (or several someones) have got to go.
So I killed off a pair of moms in my current WIP. The adopted mom and the birth mom. Which left me with a group of people weighing heavily on the side of testosterone which meant changing the mentor type character from a man to woman just to get a wee bit of the female viewpoint in her (though she is far from a girly girly).
I’m sure this will add an entirely new set of problems to the plaot for my main character but it pretty much rules out the mentor being played by Danny Glover in the movie.
That is the perfect icon to go with your post.
I love that you killed the moms. It just sounds so awful. Only writers would get it.
One of these days I WILL have to figure out how to write a book with a positive mother figure in it though. 🙂
LOL – if John Travolta could do it in Hairspray, then perhaps the door is not closed entirely for Danny Glover…? Nah.
hahaha. Somehow I can’t see Danny Glover being willing to take that chance.
Isn’t it hard to kill them off? LOL
Good luck with this manuscript!
Ahh…revisions. I think it’s funny that you had two moms in the story and both had to go! For story people, having kids is like a death wish.
It sounds like you’re having good realizations, though, so yay you!
I’m not even at the revision stage – I’m still at the trying to sorta outline the plot before I dive in stage. Yikes!
I loved this whole post from the photo of you down to the Danny Glover line.
Wishing you clarity as you swing that writerly weed whacker and find your way through the plot and characters.
Thanks, I’d like some clarity too. like the kind that tells me I’m on the right track. 🙂
Ooh, your header is so elegant!
Congrats on trimming your character list down. That was probably really hard. Take heart–Maybe the moms will live to be supporting cast in a different book someday. And if Danny Glover pulls off a role transgender-style, he’s even a better actor than I thought!
Thanks Laura. It was hard. I’m still not 100% sure that it was the right thing to do because that means I’m writing from a LOT of male POVs and that’s going to be tough.
Yeah, why do the Mom’s always fare so much worse than the Dads in YA fiction?
Not that I don’t do it, too. Both the book I just revised and the book I’m working on now have problematic mothers who either don’t or nearly don’t survive the story …
That’s a good question. Maybe we all have more deep-seated mom issues than we care to admit to?
Oh my, the havoc we wreak, Susan. And judging from Hugging the Rock (which arrived yesterday!) you will write than havoc into an amazing book. And, darn it on Danny. But when you’ve gotta cut, you’ve gotta cut. Good luck, and happy cutting!
Thank you, Deb. I hope you enjoy Hugging the Rock. It played havoc with my heart when I wrote it, that’s for sure!
First…Oh MY, I love the new LJ look, Susan!!
And-I’m glad you allowed this story to play havoc with your heart. Beautifully told, you made every single word count. And I was smiling, laughing, crying the whole way through. And that scene with them going to the grocery story was magical, and happy I was crying because I was so happy to see them connect! Just the kind of book you can’t wait to get out and tell kids about. Well done!
Thank you so much for your kind words about my book. The grocery store is one of my favorites. I don’t usually read it to an audience because it’s one of the longer ones. I end up reading about Madison not eating and then I have to try not to cry myself.
I appreciate you sharing my book with anyone you think would enjoy it.
PS – thanks for noticing the LJ look. You are one of two that noticed. Sigh. I spent a couple of weeks working with a very talented designer to get what I wanted but boy, hard work. So thanks for noticing. 🙂