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A beta reader told me to kill my favorite scene and it saved the whole story
I was working on a fantasy novel about a blacksmith who finds a magic anvil. I had this one scene I was so proud of where he fights a giant serpent in a rainstorm. I thought it was the best thing I ever wrote. Then a beta reader from my local writing group said my protagonist sounded like a cardboard cutout and that scene felt like it belonged in a different book. At first I was annoyed, but after sitting on it for a week I realized she was right. the scene was all action and no character development. I cut it completely and replaced it with a quiet conversation between the blacksmith and his mentor. Now the story actually has emotional weight. Has anyone else had to trash something they loved to make the rest of the story better?
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diana_west271mo ago
Yeah no kidding, that exact thing happened to me with my mystery novel. I had this huge chase scene through a carnival at night, thought it was genius. All that description of the rides and lights and tension. But my beta group basically said the same thing - it was just noise, didn't move the story anywhere. The main character was just running, not making any choices that mattered. So I cut the whole thing, like 15 pages gone. Replaced it with two people sitting in a diner talking. That conversation ended up being the heart of the book. It's brutal in the moment but you gotta trust the process sometimes. The story gets leaner and meaner.
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ivanross1mo ago
Cutting 15 pages? Oof, I once deleted two chapters and called it a spa day for my manuscript.
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