Pour One Out for Josh

As we stand athwart the midpoint of Son of Music Novel edits, we bow our heads in a moment of silence for Josh.

Josh was a minor character (so minor he never even had a last name) who has fallen prey to our ruthless editing knives. Don’t feel too bad for him, though. While he no longer has any lines, he still gets namedropped. And even though the only time he’s mentioned is on the worst day of his professional career, he gets off really light in the grand scheme of things.

Also removed from the novel? Over 9,000 words. The bit with old Josh up there accounts for a couple hundred of them, and is the biggest single cut so far. We already looked the whole novel over on a scene-by-scene level, and we’re pretty confident that what’s in there now is all stuff we need. But as we work our way through using the finer tools and the higher magnification, we’ll find a few things like Josh. He came to the Writing Cave with stars in his eyes, but unfortunately for him, his big break came at the end of a chapter, and he didn’t really contribute much. His dreams of stardom ended up on the cutting room floor in service to tighter prose and a better chapter hook.

So really, dear reader, it’s your fault. We did it all for you.

A writing partner is someone who helps you make the tough calls, even when they shatter an innocent character’s dreams.