Idea culling question

Yes, I almost always throw out my first chapter. I suspect my first chapter is just there for my own benefit as a jumping off point.

In the manuscript I'm shopping around now, I had to change a bunch of stuff around, including omitting three chapters that were completely redundant to the telling of the story.

Now, my first chapter is what was originally my fourth chapter. My second chapter is what originally was my first chapter. It works much better than it originally did, but I did not enjoy having to decide what stayed in my manuscript, and what I would have to throw out.

Amiton said:

The story still works, and it's for the better in the end, but have many of you ever ended up cutting the original scene out of your story by the time you were done?

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So far I haven't encountered this. My novels are usually formed around ideas or characters, rather than being built on one specific scene. But I have cut scenes that I once felt were pivotal, only to discover they really weren't necessary after all.

All part of the learning process, I suppose.

I have some scenes envisioned when I start to write and sometimes they last. Sometimes they don't. Usually, when they don't, it's because something better came along or they were no longer relevant to what I'm apparently writing. That's fine by me.

Not for me. Every scene that is in a project that generated the project is still in there. The closest I've come are those scenes that were never meant to be in the story but were the catalysts for the story.

For example: when I thought my novel "not all dreams" was going to be a short story, I had an image of a woman walking home late at night. She's cold and tired and she's just got off work. That image haunted me for some time before I realized that I only saw her from the back because I was looking at her from the killer's eyes and the discovery of her body would be the catalyst for the story.

Aside from that, so far all my generating scenes are still in the works. But it's probably because I let the scenes and images stew while I come up with everything around them so by the time it comes to that scene, I know how pivotal and important it is.

Rabe...

Amiton said:

It's fine by me, too. It was just one of those things that I don't know that I was ready for my writing to do (kind of like the first time that characters start telling you what they would do rather than them doing what you want them to).

Amiton.

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"There comes a point when the character starts to play you, and not the other way around..." Michael York, Actor.

That, I think, is the beauty of a story. A lot of times, it begins to tell itself to me, and not the other way around. I truly enjoy those moments, and I do not think I would trade them for anything. They are the shining moments of creativity to me, when the creation starts to do things on its own that the Creator might not have originally intended....and yet, the Creator can only sit there in awe and think, "This works perfectly!"

Thanks for starting this thread Amiton. I'm not sure yet, but have a feeling my first chapter is about to 'get the chop'. Knowing others experience the same thing is helpful and encouraging.

Just keep in mind the reassuring advice:

"It's ok to write crap."

My first chapters almost always get chopped, or moved, or rewritten until they are unrecognizable. It's part of the fun.

Karen

My first chapter sometimes stays intact, because the characters get annoyed if I try to take it out... Other times, I keep the basic idea of the first chapter, but change how I present it.