I didn't mean to ignore you

While I feel like I've been on quite a roll with the novel lately, there is part of me that is feeling like I'm neglecting some of the characters.

I've been spending a lot of time on one main thing, and it's made some stuff I've already done obsolete. There is a character I really like, and think is a good idea for a character, but I don't really know if he's fitting in with the direction my book is going. Because of that, I don't know how long that guy will be hanging around.

It won't take that much to cut him out of the novel (a snip, snip here and there, and he would be gone), but it's tough to do. He's one of my guys. I took the time to come up with him, and he was important enough for me to put him in there in the first place.

But that is part of the process - cutting out the riffraff to keep the project on track. If there is anything more annoying than extraneous stuff in a novel that doesn't keep the story moving forward, I don't know what it is. It's my story, and I'm sticking to it, even if it means letting go of some stuff I like.

This has happened to me before, with some of the other short stories and things I've written in the past. Sometimes you come up with a character that doesn't fit in with what you're working on. I just toss 'em in the back of my brain and let them hang out until I come up with something that fits them.