Four years ago I had a dream. A dream where I escaped from a village by crossing a river on horseback with a handsome blond standing on the shore, waiting for me. A month later, this dream had developed into a full-blown story where the blond, Ayden, was the hero who was important to the whole group that accompanied him.
However, after a while my interest in this story waned and I moved on to other things. I would keep coming back to this story and tweaking it a bit, only to leave it again. After rolling the story around in my head for so long, I have finally decided to try writing it as my NaNoWriMoNo (I love that acronym, its like Japanese! ).
But there's a problem. I now find myself wondering about the Ayden's importance in the story and if he's anything more than a flat character. He used to a central member of the group and the integral (not to be confused with the Calculus term 'integral' ) part of the story. Now the story has shifted so the plot is carried/started by Seira, not Ayden. He's also lost his drive and both of his romantic interests. I think I've turned him into the righteous character who gets all emo/depressed and ends up being hated, disliked, not preferred, or ignored by the reader. Kinda like people are of Harry Potter in the fifth book (and possibly onwards).
My solution? I think I'll have to let him go. No, not kill him off, but get rid of him completely and leave no trace he ever existed in the story. Rammstein can easliy take up the hero aspects of Ayden's character (which are mainly some things he does, not who he is) and is a more interesting and driven character in general. It's hard, though, because Ayden's been in it since the beginning. He was even a part of my inspiration. Also, this cements Seira's role as the central character. Her job to "save the kingdom" is no longer split between her and Ayden, which I feel may create problems in my attempts to have an ensemble cast. But the story would probably be better without him as long as I can't fix him and make him actually matter.
Have you ever had to cut a character out of a story? Come close? When do you know it's time to let a character go? Have any pointers for fixing or taking out characters?
Please and thank you!
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