What to do with the stuff you cut out of your novel…

The following is a guest post by a Readerly Writer.  As you can see at the end, her pub date is coming up.  Huzzah!  She writes about one way to use some of the material you cut from a novel.  She has created a bonus prequel for her readers that she is using to build her newsletter list.  You can get it at the end of this post!

When Robin and I worked on my historical romance Secrets to the Wind, we quickly summarized several scenes that I had originally written to be several pages longer. I put them all in a folder marked Outtakes. They did not fit the overall story arc of the novel, and many of them did not have a story arc of their own.

Secrets to the Wind involves abolitionists Annie and Daniel in the midst of the Civil War. The story I harvested from my outtakes depicts a dramatic incident from Annie’s early life on Martha’s Vineyard. I wanted to use the story as a prequel to the novel, but couldn’t figure out how to bring in Daniel. 

My process of turning this into a full-blown prequel involved several steps.

First, I outlined the story, using one of the beat sheets that Robin introduced to me.  Using 6,000 words as a goal, I estimated how many words I would allot to the inciting incident, the B story, bad guys closing in, the finale, and the closing scene. This gave me a framework.

Second, I used Annie’s antagonist from the novel to bookend the short story. This created continuity between the novel and the prequel. 

Third, I did a little more historical research. (Okay, true confession: I went down the rabbit hole for three whole days. It sure was fun.)Serendipity! I discovered that within the timeframe of my prequel, African-American orator Frederick Douglass actually spoke about a thousand feet from Annie’s home on Martha’s Vineyard. His speech provided a reason for her to be interested in abolition.

Using my outline, I crafted a satisfying story. But still no Daniel. Fortunately, I knew that he and Frederick were good friends from Rochester, New York, and that early in his career Douglass was nervous about speaking truth to white audiences. With a couple strokes of the pen, I inserted Daniel as a bodyguard, and Annie got to meet him very briefly six years before their courtship began in the novel. 

I called the short story Songbird in the Swamp because Annie’s music is a theme that runs all through my three-book series. I added word count to each section of the beat sheet to keep the story on track, and it turned out to be 9,000 words–even better than my original 6,000-word goal. After formatting the short story, I included a brief Author’s Note and then attached the first three chapters from Secrets to the Wind.

Creating the cover for Songbird was easy and fun, since I’d labored hard a few weeks earlier to help craft the cover for Secrets. Choosing a significant artifact from the short story and making it the same color as Annie’s dress on the novel’s cover was a great beginning. My designer chose similar colors for the background scene and approximated the font. 

I was delighted. Now I have a lead magnet I can use to build my mailing list for Secrets to the Wind. Both covers look gorgeous on the back of my newly-designed business card, too.

Here’s what I learned from this experience. First, I need not be afraid to “kill my darlings” (or scenes) as I refine my novel. I can resurrect them later to create standalone short stories. Second, I can save considerable time by beginning with an outline and sticking to the word limit for each beat. 

Finally, my muse is not at all inhibited by structure. In fact, she showed up right on time to fulfill my requirement to have both my novel’s main characters figure into the prequel. I think I will name her Sarah Dipity.:-)  

Get Songbird in the Marsh here.

Jeanne Gehret is the author of Secrets to the Wind, scheduled for publication this fall. You can visit her website at www.JeanneGehretAuthor.com. She finds plenty of historical inspiration in her hometown of Rochester, New York.

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