[stylist] When pruning leaves gaps

[James Canaday M.A. N6YR]

well,
Helene, it depends on your image of the work and the goals you 
have.  you may wish to have chapters that jangle the reader, come as 
surprises, throw the reader off, or lead down the proverbial rat 
hole.  sometimes the work you write is intended and imagined in your 
head is a boat floating calmly under sail, much harmony at many 
levels.  other times, your story might be running the rapids, dashed 
about by a racing stream.  or, it may have a motor and beat the water 
with a rhythmic drive and beat up river against the flow with each 
inch of progress, spray flying!

as I said, I have trouble pruning, sometimes it feels like it would 
be easier to remove a finger, or certainly one of those expendable toes.
jc

Jim Canaday M.A.
Lawrence, KS

At 07:57 PM 4/12/2009, you wrote:
>Thanks Tamara,
>I find I'm having to rewrite the whole of chapter 29 since it just
>doesn't make any sense now I've edited stuff out, but on rereading it
>the ideas had flaws in them anyway. It seemed a good idea at the time
>but now seems a little silly and out of place. I think the new chapter
>29 will be an improved version when I can rewrite it.
>
>Do other writers get that, idea's that seemed good at first then you
>go over it and think "Na, that doesn't work at all?"
>
>Helene
>
>On 12/04/2009, Tamara Smith-Kinney <tamara.8024 at comcast.net> wrote:
> > Helene,
> >
> > Oh, yeah!  And I have also found that I will cut something, then forget to
> > remove a reference to it in the dialog of another plotline, then, which I
> > suddenly realize will make no sense to the reader...  One of the dangers of
> > a long piece of fiction, I guess.  A time or two, I've caught instances of
> > that happening in a book I'm reading, which is very confusing until it
> > suddenly dawns on me what happened.  /smile/  Usually it's when a
> > commercially popular sequel got rushed through editing.  So I guess we all
> > do it.
> >
> > Good luck!
> >
> > Tami Smith-Kinney
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
> > Behalf Of helene ryles
> > Sent: Monday, April 06, 2009 10:06 PM
> > To: Writer's Division Mailing List
> > Subject: Re: [stylist] When pruning leaves gaps
> >
> > I am still pruning away any unneccessary clutter from my novel. Some
> > subplots can very neatly be cut out. At other times it seems that when
> > you try pruning it leaves gaps.
> >
> > Has anyone else found that to be the case?
> >
> > Helene
> >
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