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bedlamsbardI must be progressing as a writer. I'm about to cut an entire chapter and not even wince more than a little bit.
No, not an entire chapter's worth of scenes. An entire chapter.
Okay, to be fair: it's actually supposed to be half of Dust 12, but it really doesn't need to be there, and it's almost 8K, and the point where I stopped is an excellent chapter break. It's also completely unnecessary, and if I posted it as part of Dust, would probably be the most self-indulgent thing to come out that story yet. And there's a lot that qualifies under that label. It's also breaking one of the cardinal rules I've been operating under for Dust: if the story doesn't need to be told, don't tell the story. (In other words, if it's just "and this happened over here while this was going on", then it doesn't need to be there. The past few segments of Dust were an exception because it was two different stories, but this is...completely unnecessary. It would be like having Dust 6 be Peter's POV after the hippogriff attack, or Edmund's POV after he's been carried off. Completely unnecessary.)
Don't get me wrong, there are parts of it that are extremely cool -- Susan's shitkicking boots, Crackclaw the raven, the almost-riot, Prejun's exhortation to Bahadur to put Breakneck back in Guard custody -- but it's not necessary. It's cluttered. It's messy. It doesn't belong in the story I'm writing.
Back to square one on Dust 12. Again.
If there's interest I'll put it up as a deleted scene; I don't think it gives anything away.
No, not an entire chapter's worth of scenes. An entire chapter.
Okay, to be fair: it's actually supposed to be half of Dust 12, but it really doesn't need to be there, and it's almost 8K, and the point where I stopped is an excellent chapter break. It's also completely unnecessary, and if I posted it as part of Dust, would probably be the most self-indulgent thing to come out that story yet. And there's a lot that qualifies under that label. It's also breaking one of the cardinal rules I've been operating under for Dust: if the story doesn't need to be told, don't tell the story. (In other words, if it's just "and this happened over here while this was going on", then it doesn't need to be there. The past few segments of Dust were an exception because it was two different stories, but this is...completely unnecessary. It would be like having Dust 6 be Peter's POV after the hippogriff attack, or Edmund's POV after he's been carried off. Completely unnecessary.)
Don't get me wrong, there are parts of it that are extremely cool -- Susan's shitkicking boots, Crackclaw the raven, the almost-riot, Prejun's exhortation to Bahadur to put Breakneck back in Guard custody -- but it's not necessary. It's cluttered. It's messy. It doesn't belong in the story I'm writing.
Back to square one on Dust 12. Again.
If there's interest I'll put it up as a deleted scene; I don't think it gives anything away.