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Kill... and kill again
So, as I may or may not have mentioned, I was fortunate enough to sign up with a new literary agent at the tail end of 2009. Huzzah! And what was the novel that captured her attention, you ask? Why, it was Wild, the Book That Broke My Brain. I knew those goddamn junkie werewolves would be good for something someday. More huzzahs!
On the other hand, I am now rewriting the bloody book (is "bloody" a swearword, Dad? I'm not sure where we stand on that one) for about the sixth time in three years. I chopped out two entire chapters today. I know! Just gone! Deleted. Added to the ever-growing Wild Out-takes file, which is now long enough to be a novella in itself. And yes, I totally believe it will be 100% meaner, leaner, sharper and better for the rewrite. My agent has some brilliant ideas for improving the novel overall, and that's set me off with my own ideas for shining everything up. And it's all good.
Except for one thing. Vaughn Johnson.
See, in the original version of Wild, Vaughn is a 40-something werewolf who may or may not be responsible for turning 20-something Lizzie into a werewolf. Their relationship was a mix of friends, lovers, and student-teacher. He was world-weary and patient, she was angry and drugged-up. It's a beautiful thing. And it doesn't work anymore.
Because I've lowered the ages of everyone in the book. Lizzie is now an early-20s university drop-out, and all the other characters have been similarly youthenized. For the majority of them, it hasn't changed anything because they were all fairly young anyway. But Vaughn doesn't work as a 20-something. I just can't see it. As much as I don't believe the whole "my characters tell me what to do!" mentality, I do believe that some characters don't fit some stories, and Vaughn doesn't fit Wild anymore.
So he's going. Ruthlessly eliminated from the novel to make way for a younger, hipper werewolf. Goodbye Vaughn Johnson, hello Nicholas Doyle. Yes. I am killing my darlings. And I'd do it again.
On the other hand, I am now rewriting the bloody book (is "bloody" a swearword, Dad? I'm not sure where we stand on that one) for about the sixth time in three years. I chopped out two entire chapters today. I know! Just gone! Deleted. Added to the ever-growing Wild Out-takes file, which is now long enough to be a novella in itself. And yes, I totally believe it will be 100% meaner, leaner, sharper and better for the rewrite. My agent has some brilliant ideas for improving the novel overall, and that's set me off with my own ideas for shining everything up. And it's all good.
Except for one thing. Vaughn Johnson.
See, in the original version of Wild, Vaughn is a 40-something werewolf who may or may not be responsible for turning 20-something Lizzie into a werewolf. Their relationship was a mix of friends, lovers, and student-teacher. He was world-weary and patient, she was angry and drugged-up. It's a beautiful thing. And it doesn't work anymore.
Because I've lowered the ages of everyone in the book. Lizzie is now an early-20s university drop-out, and all the other characters have been similarly youthenized. For the majority of them, it hasn't changed anything because they were all fairly young anyway. But Vaughn doesn't work as a 20-something. I just can't see it. As much as I don't believe the whole "my characters tell me what to do!" mentality, I do believe that some characters don't fit some stories, and Vaughn doesn't fit Wild anymore.
So he's going. Ruthlessly eliminated from the novel to make way for a younger, hipper werewolf. Goodbye Vaughn Johnson, hello Nicholas Doyle. Yes. I am killing my darlings. And I'd do it again.
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Great to hear you digging into the revisions, though! Woohoo!! Go for it. :)
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Love the icon - very appropriate.
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Poor Vaughn - with a surname for a first name, things were never going to turn out well for him ;-) Any chance he can be in his 30s rather than his 40s?
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Gah, why don't I have a werewolf icon?!
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Hmm, given that the story now heavily features Liverpool's clubs and music scene (and taking pills in toilets like the classy girl Lizzie is), I can probably fit a few emos and goths in there somewhere. Nicholas can be the guy who plays bass in a band and sits around smoking clove cigarettes and staring soulfully/sulkily into the distance so that girls think he's an Artistic Soul.
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She's UK-based (London, in fact) - Trisha Telep at Pretext Agency. Relatively new to agenting, but she puts together the Mammoth Book of ... paranormal anthologies.
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