Old Material vs New Material

Something that's been pestering me this week (when I wasn't working through both American and Chinese bureaucracy) was connecting the disjointed parts of my story.

I was on the road a lot, which meant a lot of time to  contemplate my story. I made some good progress mapping out the characters and getting the time lines for both books to match up, but I'm still having difficulties deciding on what events I want to make sure I include.

I had to cut a lot of scenes from the original manuscript of The Paladin when I started cutting words. I viewed this split-book move as a way to help get some of those scenes back in, but I'm quickly figuring out that may not be for the best. Of course there's a desire to salvage good scenes I couldn't justify keeping in the older drafts, but I need to make sure I'm not just writing to reincorporate those scenes. I need to write to make the story better, not just save the vanity chapters.

With new material comes new motivations and new needs for my characters. The scenes I cut from the original manuscript were a product of their story, they fit within the confines of that narrative. I need to find a balance between bringing back those deleted scraps and writing completely new material that better fits the story I'm telling now. 

So how do I find that balance? I mean, if I had that answer I don't suppose I'd be blogging about it right now, would I? There's a lot to consider and I think I really need to think about the deleted pieces as options and not mandatory. If I think there's a concept from an older draft that I can repurpose, then I should go with it. If not, I need to focus on the new stuff.

Well... that's the route I'm going to go, anyway. Hopefully it all works out.

​Be Excellent to Each Other.