First – housekeeping. I won’t harrass y’all with my queries any more 🙂 The statician in me sees the trend.
Moving on to more important things.
I have this friend. She’s smart, sexy, and funny. She’s witty, and frequently seems to have an appropriate comeback regardless of the conversation. She’s seductive, amusing, and likable.
All my other friends love her. To the point of saying “she’s a lot of fun”. But…this friend has a problem. She’s not going anywhere. It’s great to have her around, but when she’s gone, everyone asks “weren’t we supposed to be getting something done?”
I adore this friend. I see that what she does is more subtle. But even I find myself asking “is it enough?”
Okay, now I have a confession to make (’cause none of you saw that coming :-P). This ‘friend’ isn’t quite a traditional friend. Some people might instead call her…
…a chapter in my book.
It’s the chapter where I introduce my MC to the romantic interest. Everyone who’s given me feedback on it says it’s a fun chapter. They like the dialogue. They like the new girl.
But they also all see nothing else happens in the chapter. There’s some light conflict in the dialogue and there’s a hint of something sinister in the background (like, a very mild hint. Like the difference between french vanilla and vanilla bean).
None of them has said “this doesn’t work.” Not even close. No one has even implied it. (And I’m ignoring the part of my brain that says ‘they’re just being nice because you’ve been whining so much lately’, because I know my CP’s would never hold back if it was just bad.) But I know it’s a problem. From the moment I wrote the chapter I knew it wasn’t robust enough.
The exchange needs to happen somewhere. This new character needs to be introduced and I’d prefer to do it through some sort of exchange that shows who she is. But it doesn’t have to be in this setting. I’m certainly not opposed to revising it. The problem is, I can’t think of a way.
I figure I have two choices:
- Trust my readers and past self and leave it becasue no one has complained
- Trust my gut and figure out a way to rewrite it
What would you do and/or how would you decide?
Everytime I haven’t trusted my gut, something has gone wrong.
Just a thought 🙂
Guts actually know more than CPs, little known medical fact. Generally my way of solving that kind of chapter problem is to burn something down or snap a relationship, but if your gut tells you something is wrong–maybe your gut knows what to do, too?
And don’t throw around “rewrite” so casually. Many times all you need to do is add or subtract something, which is different than completely rewriting a whole chapter.
I had a scene like that in my second manuscript. All of my cps loved it. It was a fun scene. It didn’t forward the plot any. I eventually cut it, even though it was fun. I think you should trust your gut. Good luck.
Go with your gut and rewrite it. My bet would be that somewhere along the line you will need to anyway even if it is your agent who ends up recommending it. It might slip past CPs but if it is really bothering you, you should try to rewrite or rework it.