X is for x-ing things out

As in deleting whole scenes, cutting characters, and losing those darlings.

WEIRDNESS just in. Just as I was about to post this, I heard my cat making A LOT of racket downstairs, and with good reason. A lizard had gotten into our house and was hiding under her water bowl. Before she was able to separate his tail from the rest of his body, I saved his life! Which is bizarre because this post is about King of the Mutants, my middle grade novel, where the protagonist has a tail – an alligator tail! Viva le lézard! Viva le mutant!


And moving on...

When I received my agent's comments on my middle grade manuscript I was relieved. See, I had a character in the MS who was, hmm, how do I put this? Extremely disturbing. In fact, this character was so disturbing even I, the writer, was never completely comfortable with her or the scene.

Uh, yeah. I rewrote it, cutting this character out of the manuscript completely, and replacing her with something much, much cooler and way less creepy. As a writer I do like pushing the envelope sometimes, but I don't want to give readers nightmares. Hey, the title of this book is KING OF THE MUTANTS. Trust me, there's a whole lot of strangeness going on.

SOUND OFF: Have any weird characters in your WIP? Should they be there? Are you scared of me now? Do lizards ever get into your house? How high do you let your freak flag fly?