My mother and I share a love of reading and she recently asked me how I came up with the character and creature names in Emmeline Grant and the Monstrous Beesh. The answer was boring: They popped into my head, and I wrote them down! Writing the first draft (version) of a story is exciting. What is challenging is going back over that first draft and deciding what characters should the book focus on, and which ones should just be in the background? Which descriptions will the reader find interesting and which are only interesting to the person writing the book? Does the dialogue sound natural, the way people really do (or would in an imaginary place) talk?
I worked for many years as an editor of other writers' manuscripts. One of the big challenges in editing or writing a book is deciding what not to include. Books should, in most cases, resist the urge to be 500 or 600 or 700 pages. (I’ve read good books that were that long, but there are many reasons publishers like them to be shorter, not least of which is the cost of shipping. Paper can be very heavy, though with ebooks this is not a concern.)
Just as people differ in their way of walking through a park or eating a meal––some ambling along taking everything in slowly, while others zip ahead at a quick pace––readers differ in their preferences. Some enjoy detailed, vivid descriptions and a story that unfolds like a beautiful flower. Others look for a story that prompts page-turning suspense and snappy dialogue. I sought to please readers who fell somewhere between the two, a reader such as myself, I suppose. To do this, at an early point, I had to decide what not to include and this decision meant deleting sections I liked quite a lot.
Out went the thoughts and words of animals in Pletonia as they reflected on their past lives, for as you may know (if you’ve read Emmeline Grant and the Monstrous Beesh) Pletonians remember back three lifetimes, some more. I would have liked to have developed the characters of the animals, but in the end left their stories untold.
However…! I did save some of these portions, and here is one such deleted excerpt, from Gots, Binkey Wanoggin’s horse. I hope you will enjoying “hearing” Gots’s voice. (The illustration above is the original sketch for Bin’s wagon with Gots.)
For nearly forty years I’ve been haulin’ Mr. Binkey to and fro. It wasn’t the worst life, mind you. I coulda been born in the Dark Lands. But I also coulda been born again as a polynormous. That was a lot of fun! We flew in groups and I had the most prettiest blue scales...
But, Mr. Binkey, he’s okay. And his memory? He don’t forget anythin’! Miss Bobbie Jean bought five yards of red ribbon three years ago? He’d remember it. Mr. Cooperrider’s llama given off wool at five nanatoni for two heavy stones’ worth––he’d remember.
Everyone looks forward to Binkey’s visits: from Hapfaleighly, that be the home of the Majesty, to Puck’s Island. The only place we ne’er visit would be Pish’s place. Binkey says his father told him never to go there, and that Binkey? He listened to the Old Man. Me, I just go or no go wherever Binkey tells me to. This isn’t a bad life, mind you. But in my next life, I’d like to be a farmer and have a wife who’d bake me apple pies and pancakes. That would be loverly!
Comments