Killing Your Creations... Again

So I've got a scene in Cold Magics. I really like it. It has great emotion, depth, pathos, all sorts of fun things. Unfortunately, it does nothing to advance the plot.

I've tried modifying it, I've tried shortening it, tried changing it, but none of that works. It's either the original scene, or nothing. And the original scene doesn't add anything to the book. All I can do is kill it.

Sigh.

On the bright side, it should knock 10 pages off the book.

Sigh.

I had the exact same issue (different scene) when I was writing Small Magics. Sometimes there's good bits that just don't fit the book you're writing. And even if they're really, really good bits, there's still no point in keeping them in the book.

So I have a file on the computer where I keep the scenes I can't use. After all, I might be able to use them somewhere else, right?

All right, I'll never use them, but I still keep them. Anyone out there want to tell me I'm not alone in this?

And They're Off!

I began the edit of Cold Magics this week. I've run into a slight snag in that I'm sick as a dog right now, but plan to be going again very soon. Will attempt some tonight, but not much. I'm for bed in half an hour.

The Furnace is Broken

Bloody hell.

You know you're in trouble...

When you're the only parent home, you want to do some work on the computer and youtube is down.

A brief comment on the progress of Cold Magics:

AAAAARRRRRRGHHHHH!!!!!

So, I have been writing this book for far too long. It is one of the problems with being a working person and an author that, when things in life change, your writing ineveitably suffers. With me, it was the change in jobs and the moving that have made this book drag on a year longer than it should.

And when these things happen you get into start-and-stop writing that can be disasterous for your work. In this case, my work ground to a halt until last night, when I realized where the problems all began: Page 233.

So all I have to do is take the work back to that point and correct it.

Infortunately, I'm on page 483.

Like I said:

AAAAARRRRRRGHHHHH!!!!!

Ah, isn't being a writer great?

Still, nothing for it. Back I go, and the result will be a better book.