Schumi

Hi everybody,

Recently, my novel took a different shape to the one I had originally planned. I had centred it on a character called Michael who had been diagnosed with incurable cancer. But he no longer maintained the role of the main character, and I have taken the step of removing him all together. He wasn't right, and I will probably use him for another novel at some stage.

The novel is now based on a female character called Samantha. This wasn't the intention I should add; it just started to turn more towards her. The thing is, the opening chapter involves Michael, so should I edit that chapter now before I carry on any further with the novel? Incidentally, chapter two will now become chapter one, and vice versa. Chapter two is a home scene involving Samantha, and chapter one is a hospital scene involving Michael.

This may all sound like I haven't taken any time in planning my novel (I’ve done a lot of planning), but honestly, the change over of the most important character happened when I was writing some dialogue. I found the ending of the novel when I was writing it, and it was Samantha who was talking at the time.

Any advice would be great. Thanks.

PamHKyle

If you're going to usethes Michael character in another book, I think you better remove the first chapter (Don't just whipe it out, but save it into another, seperate file! you might want to use it), and write your story about Samantha. BUT if the novel involving Michael wil be related to the one about Samantha, maybe you can leave it in.
The best way, I guess is to put the Michael-chapter aside and ask yourself this question again when you've got a few more chapters. your storyline might have changed again...
Hope this helps a bit

PamHKyle

oops, I of course meant "If you're going to use this Michael...."

hollyoake

You could keep it as it is and write both books as a series, thus not losing anything that you have writen that you thought was good and worked well.

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JustJim

Don't worry about the story changing on you. All great artists have the problem of the subject getting slippery, which is why some people don't do that much planning.