I'm a big believer in, if it's not working, throw it completely away and start again.
No!!!! *clutches notebooks and notebook computer tightly* You mustn't take it away! It's 30,000 words and it's *done* and it's precious to me!!!
But everyone has their own way of working.
*calms down somewhat* Actually, I have done some fairly brutal cuts and revisions already, and I did try rewriting it without her in it, and liked it less. So I don't think starting over is the answer, at least not for this particular situation. But I like your advice about listening to what the characters want to say, and also Lily's about using OCs to tell us something about the canon characters Frodo. I'll keep all that in mind when I'm revising this and also when working on another fic I have bits and pieces of (which features some Marigold and rather a lot of Rosie).
But it all is mysterious, and for me it's especially mysterious when I'm looking at my own writing, like I lose all capacity to judge whether it's working or not. I do know that I enjoyed writing this one a lot, so that's something to hold on to anyway. :-)
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No!!!! *clutches notebooks and notebook computer tightly* You mustn't take it away! It's 30,000 words and it's *done* and it's precious to me!!!
*calms down somewhat* Actually, I have done some fairly brutal cuts and revisions already, and I did try rewriting it without her in it, and liked it less. So I don't think starting over is the answer, at least not for this particular situation. But I like your advice about listening to what the characters want to say, and also Lily's about using OCs to tell us something about
the canon charactersFrodo. I'll keep all that in mind when I'm revising this and also when working on another fic I have bits and pieces of (which features some Marigold and rather a lot of Rosie).But it all is mysterious, and for me it's especially mysterious when I'm looking at my own writing, like I lose all capacity to judge whether it's working or not. I do know that I enjoyed writing this one a lot, so that's something to hold on to anyway. :-)