Save Your Editorial Cuts and Deleted Scenes

I had several pieces of a novel-in-progress that I’d set aside from the manuscript. Two fell outside the overall timeline; I’d cut several others because, while they were interesting, detracted from the main flow of the story. One was most of an entire scene; one involved a character than I’d cut; and one simply had way too much detail for the short scene that it was. 

But I’d kept them all, saved in a file on my computer as well as in my own head.

 

I was also working as a contributing editor for an online magazine, published several times a year and each issue centered on a theme. The editor was seeking articles, poems, and stories for the Christmas issue, and I remembered one of my cut pieces from the novel-in-progress.

 

It was a Christmas story, but it needed a bit of work. I pulled it from its Word file on my computer and began to read, edit, revise, and write. It needed work; reading it now, I’d still do more revising. But I submitted it, and it was accepted and duly published. 

To continue reading, please see my post today at the ACFW blog.

Photograph by Alexander Grey via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Wednesday Readings

 

Writing for, Within, and Against the Market – Lincoln Michel at Counter Craft.

 

Devilish Dwight in Division Command – Brian Kowell at Emerging Civil War.

 

Birds – artwork by Sonja Benskin Mesher.

 

The Loons of Colby Lake – poem by Michael Pietrack at Society of Classical Poets.

 

Lebanonization in the UK – Sam Bidwell at The Critic Magazine.