I was a bum all day yesterday, writing-wise. Today I woke up and decided to go back and turn a fairly major character back into a minor one. Since I've gone through the Menelaus section and tried to figure out its arc, I'm now thinking that the story may be simpler and clearer if that character is downgraded. So...I'm going to have to cut a lot of stuff, all the way through. I'll start working on that today.

The reasons I'm thinking of cutting this character are:

1) The end of the Menelaus section is confusing to me; I can't quite get a feel for how events build.* If I take this piece out--although I like some of it very, very much--the section may suddenly make sense.

2) It's causing me grief to try to get this character introduced properly in the beginning without making the story drag (even more than it already does).

3) I'm at a point where I'm trying to think "What does this story want to say to the reader?" Not to me, to the reader. That means all my personal blah-blah-blah needs to be secondary to clarity: What do I want the reader to take away at the end of the book? I'm thinking this character's stuff isn't needed to give that message, and in fact it's clouding the points the story could be making.

3) I think I might be able to give more power to the stuff that's already there without this thread. I think it may be diluting what's there.

So, will see what happens today, whether this makes things better or worse.


*In fact, I seem to be using this character's thread as an excuse to add stuff I like that doesn't have anything to do with the story.