Monday, March 22, 2010

Secondaries Bite the Dust

The secondary characters are threatening to take over my short contemporary and after two days of trying to save a fabulous shopping and drinking scene with her sister, I've finally deleted it. Ouch. My heroine is now shopping and drinking by herself. She has no friends - because that would mean bringing in other secondary characters. She should be thankful I let her keep a sister. 

I've also sent her father and stepmother to a retirement community in Boca Raton so the reconciliation scene where her ugly childhood is revealed also bit the dust. Along with her sister's fabulous wedding at the yacht club. I'd already painstakingly chosen the bridal colours and theme and chosen the table decorations for the rehearsal dinner. Gone. Along with all the lovely word count that made up all those scenes.

Now, my characters have to talk to each other because they have no one left.

6 comments:

Janet said...

She has no friends...

Hilarious. That and shipping the parents off to a retirement community :) But I understand where you're coming from. You need to kill those darlings no matter how hard or painful it is. Murder is brutal, Anne - but in the end, very satisfying (figuratively speaking).

Good luck with your two person romance!

Unknown said...

LOL!

Are you sure you want to write short contemporary? Sounds like you have so much fun writing all the extra stuff.

Hope your H/H have fun falling in love!

Unknown said...

Janet, I still have a sister and a coworker milling around. And I've let the hero keep his friend. I've threatened them with the death penalty if they don't behave.

Unknown said...

Cat, I considered turning the story into a Super Romance but I resisted the urge.

Secondary characters are so much fun to write because they don't have to fit such narrow archetypes as the hero and heroine.

Annette Gallant said...

Noooooo...... I love your secondary characters! But you're right to ditch them since this story is for Desire. Hard to hit that delete button though, isn't it? :(

Kelly Boyce said...

Hahaha...that made me laugh. Especially shipping the parents off to Boca Raton!