Minnesota Monday- Football

I'm revising and that is a little like football.  Well, it's a little like this season of Vikings football.
In draft 4 (see, just like football)  of my novel I got some feedback about a character that needed to be cut.  She didn't stand out.  She was confusing because there was nothing that really set her apart from some of the other characters in the book.  She also seems to drop out of the book after a while not really making it to the 4th quarter.  After thinking long and hard I decided to cut her.
This is not unlike the decision Leslie Frazier had to make to put Donovan McNabb on the bench


and start rookie quarterback Christian Ponder.  Against arch rivals, defending Super Bowl champs, the Green Bay Packers.  Border. Battle. O.M.G. Drama. (This is the kind of drama novels are made of people)



In football the point of the game is to move the ball and score points.  As writers our characters and scenes  need to move the story forward.  If a character or scene isn't doing that it's time to let it go.

I'm sure Coach Frazier didn't want to put McNabb on the bench.  We spent a lot of money on him and had high hopes.  Writers feel the same way about our characters. We spend a lot of time on them, even the little guys and we don't want to cut them but sometimes we have to to make our novels better.

Turns out my character needed to be cut.  I cut my character and now my story is flowing better, other characters are beginning to shine and I have room to develop other characters.  I'm excited to write again.

The Vikings didn't win against Green Bay yesterday but they put up a good fight and played well.  I look forward to seeing Ponder play more this season.  I'm excited about football again.

The Vikings may not have won yesterday but here is a list of the people who won in my Rocktober giveaway.

1. Linnaea(Amber)- Coraline
2. Matthew McNish  - The Graveyard Book
3 Tracie T-$10 Starbucks gift card

How is writing like football for you?