Eastwatcher
Dreamer
Hi guys and girls
I'm at the stage now with my novel that I'm just trying to polish it off. You know, ensure continuity within character personalities, making sure each situation works as logically as possible, and most importantly, reducing the gods cursing word count. I've already removed the entire last third of my novel to reduce the overall word count to 200,000, but now I've hit a problem.
The most consistent piece of advice every writer and writing forum gives me is to cut out anything that doesn't progress the storyline, which I am doing. However, after cutting the last third of the novel away entirely, I realised there was a character who now doesn't actually have that much importance. I can practically lift him out of the book and have the other characters present do everything he brought to the storyline, and in doing so I could likely remove a good 10,000 words from the count. The one Beta reader I've had that has read my entire novel agrees that this would be a good idea. Now here is my issue. The character (called Pel) is in my opinion, and the opinion of one of my other Beta readers, one of the most interesting characters to read. The way he sees the world is so different and unique that the sections from his perspective (of which there are relatively few) are some of the most entertaining.
So what should I do? Removing him could make the story progress faster and reduce the word count, but in doing so I lose a truly original character who some people might find incredibly relatable. A way around this would be to add to the current story and give Pel something that makes him relevant once more, but again that would increase the word count when, as a first-time author, I need to get it as low as possible to be in with any real hope of publication.
What do you guys think? Every time I've had a similar issue and posted on the forum I've had some of the most amazing and helpful advice returned to me, so no pressure.
Thanks in advance,
Eastwatcher
I'm at the stage now with my novel that I'm just trying to polish it off. You know, ensure continuity within character personalities, making sure each situation works as logically as possible, and most importantly, reducing the gods cursing word count. I've already removed the entire last third of my novel to reduce the overall word count to 200,000, but now I've hit a problem.
The most consistent piece of advice every writer and writing forum gives me is to cut out anything that doesn't progress the storyline, which I am doing. However, after cutting the last third of the novel away entirely, I realised there was a character who now doesn't actually have that much importance. I can practically lift him out of the book and have the other characters present do everything he brought to the storyline, and in doing so I could likely remove a good 10,000 words from the count. The one Beta reader I've had that has read my entire novel agrees that this would be a good idea. Now here is my issue. The character (called Pel) is in my opinion, and the opinion of one of my other Beta readers, one of the most interesting characters to read. The way he sees the world is so different and unique that the sections from his perspective (of which there are relatively few) are some of the most entertaining.
So what should I do? Removing him could make the story progress faster and reduce the word count, but in doing so I lose a truly original character who some people might find incredibly relatable. A way around this would be to add to the current story and give Pel something that makes him relevant once more, but again that would increase the word count when, as a first-time author, I need to get it as low as possible to be in with any real hope of publication.
What do you guys think? Every time I've had a similar issue and posted on the forum I've had some of the most amazing and helpful advice returned to me, so no pressure.
Thanks in advance,
Eastwatcher