to remove or not remove a character

[rhiannon]

So how do you know when a character is not pulling his/her weight? I'm in the middle of writing the later chapters of my book and I've been thinking that some of the characters--children--don't work and thought about writing some out, but not sure if I should. Just need some advice thanks.

[CynanMachae]

Great question. We’ve been discussing this in one of my classes this semester (Literature and Film, which, incidentally, is an awesome class, because all we do is read novels and then watch the movies based on them), and this has been a frequent topic of debate. Because movies have to be more concise than books, it becomes a necessary step to cut out any and all characters who aren’t essential to the development of the plot, as much as we may like them in the book. But I digress.

First off, I think you’d have to define what “pulling his/her weight” actually means, because that varies from writer to writer, story to story, and sometimes even from character to character. Sometimes a character is an essential part of the story simply because no other character can effectively communicate that which he brings to the story, even if he is completely useless in and of himself. It’s so complex, I would have to know more about the story you are writing before I could give my far-from-professional feedback.

But remember, not EVERY character has to be doing something to drive the plot forward in order to be a worthwhile character. In other words, a character doesn’t have to be essential to be necessary. In fact, in the story I’m working on now, every one of my characters has a specific and unique way to push the plot forward – which is making it all seem very rushed to me. I’m trying to think of ways I can incorporate new characters or traits within my already existing characters that are more ambiguous, and help flesh out an otherwise very fast-paced read. Maybe this is just me personally, but I love thinking of all the ways I could fill in the details of a story with characters who aren’t “pulling their weight.”

So, my advice would be, consider those characters you think aren’t pulling their weight, and see what subtle things you can add to make them more relevant. If nothing comes to mind, then perhaps they DO need to go. That might not answer your question exactly, but that’s all I’ve got.

[rhiannon]

It helps it does. A few characters will stay that I had thought should go, but one will definitely be removed--it'll mean re-writing one or two chapters but it would be less stress on two other characters--got my main character in the family way and think it's too much of a disruption to the plot. The characters I'm mainly going to remove are children unless I can think of someway to incorporate them more fully into the plot in later books.

Thanks for the answer, Wish I was taking that class too.