Over the weekend I worked on the edits for my next release. It’s been a little while since I’d read through the entire book and doing so in one setting without having every single scene fresh on my mind was great. I think sometimes writers may read through something so many times that we infer what should be there, our brains know that X happened so naturally Y is next, but we may leave out one or the other. So being away from it for several months helped me find this need for more explanation and that tweak to make it make sense.

Anyhoo… after I’d finished, I remembered some of the ideas I’d come up with for the book. The ones I didn’t use. Truth be told when I started it last year, I had only two ideas for it in mind. 1) The hero was from book one: Quint Walters, the nephew of the book 1’s heroine 2) the opening scene when he gets nearly run over by the heroine.

That was it.

You try getting a 72K book from that. HA! I had to build and build and build. First was why the heroine was in a place *to* run him over. From there, I started playing the “what if” game until I whittled it down to what is now Wrong Turn, Right Cowboy. I had several ideas I ended up leaving out eventually. Some were too hard to work in logically and some just didn’t feel right for the characters. But it was fun thinking on all of them. I will say 90% were things that probably didn’t even make it to print be it handwritten or typed out. Just up in the old noggin. Still, in my head I pictured it a lot like a Bonus section of a DVD. You can see how some of the scenes kind went but by and large didn’t mesh right.

Some of it, I think can helps you get a better feel for your characters. To me, knowing why I left it out–why it doens’t work for them–is as important as what I did include. Like a backstory bit that I know but didn’t add–otherwise my 72K book may end up being 172K.

I did get a little wistful at what was left out–despite being the right choice. It made me think over some other books. Other scenes on the cutting room floor–of my brain *snicker… sounds funny to me*. Some I can happily dump and not worry about, some I have in a “cut file” because I really like the scene I just couldn’t use it (kinda plays in to Mel’s post yesterday–I am a doc pack-rat, unless or until I run out gigs). I may never actually use them again, but I have to hang onto them. Kinda reminds me of the bag with scraps of fabric I have. Just a little extra piece from this quilt or that pillow. Left over but can’t be parted with… yet.