Put Your Goggles On: It's Gonna Be A Blood Bath

As a nurse you can imagine the body fluids I've had spilled on me. Pretty much you name it, I've been in contact with it. That's a job hazard.

The other day one of our docs got me with a good amount of blood. No problem. I cleaned my clogs, accepted her apology and moved on.

That type of thing doesn't bother me. But, what I'm about to do to my book, that's another story.

I'm afraid I'm going to have to amputate weeks of work. Several chapters and a major storyline. It's going to be a blood bath. I hope I have the stomach to perform the neccesary surgery.

I was laying in bed trying to figure out why I needed the added distraction of having Bailey be accused of Bobbie's hit and run. He'll have to be vindicated of it eventually or the book would be a bummer. So, what was the purpose? Well, the purpose was to get his sister, my main character, to go to Cyprus after him. She'd need to try to find him before the cops did. Okay. But...there's already the ticking time bomb of Bailey trying to find his parent's murderer to get revenge. That's a pretty good motive in itself to get his sister there in a jiffy. I didn't really need the complication of the other.

But, I already wrote several chapters, several weeks of hard work, developing that story thread. I introduced one of my favorite characters: the crazy pumpkin haired cop. I like him. I don't want to murder him.
But, better him than the whole story. Besides, I can always use him in my next book. That makes me feel better.

I'm not sure this part of the story has to be cut. Just pretty sure. I'll have to meditate on it awhile.

I haven't had to do any major rewrites up until now and at the 1/2 - 2/3 mark, for me at least, that's pretty good.

Cutting this chunk out is going to mean I have to go back through every chapter and develop the other motivation of my character. Beef it up to fill in the gaps, and make sure their is no reference to any of the storyline or characters being slaughtered.

This will take time.

Murdering my darlings, as the literary world likes to call this editing process, bites, but not as much as rejection from a publisher.

It's better to cut the gangrene off, then to lose the whole leg. So, hand me my saw and goggles.