I’ve
been working on Rizkaland for ten years, and it represents a good deal of my writing
journey. It’s also represents most of the “Crazy Ideas that I Cut.” Sure, there
have been bad ideas that have gone through some of my other books, but none as
insane as Rizkaland.
Nerissa.
I’ve talked about Nerissa, Clara’s doll before. But she still remains one of my
great examples of “stuff I cut.” In short, she was a magic doll that Clara
received in lieu of the sword she has now, and she could use it as a second
pair of eyes. She lasted a year or two, but was gone before I finally actually
got to the scene where Clara and Andrew met. I was sad to see her go, as she
was a neat idea, and I had spent several hours one night searching for the
perfect name for her, but she just didn’t belong to Rizkaland.
Sandra.
Before I had Laura, I had Sandra Elizabeth Nedor and Jinalie Maybella Tunsut, two
beings of a four-dimensional race called the Kentalidayi. Sandra was going to
be my pen name. Neither could be harmed by anything three dimensional. They
both had really long hair. I enjoyed working with them, but I eventually cut
them because they were getting too weird and making my head hurt.
The Weed Scene.
This only made it through one draft – the first draft I finished, incidentally.
It was a scene in then-entitled The
Giraffe and the Dragon in which the Dragon sent a field of weeds to impede
Petra, Edna, Lulu, and Ashna’s journey to the Iron Noose. It involved pulling
weeds, ants, lions, and hemp jewelry, and was inspired by the long hours I
spent pulling weeds as a kid.
The Iron Noose. Actually,
I’m somewhat proud of this, and I only cut it because it made the book too
similar to LWW. Basically, it’s what I had in exchange for the Stone Table, and
it was literally a hangman’s noose made of iron. The Dragon had to breath fire
on it to make it useable. It was going to turn into normal rope after Jeptha’s
sacrifice, and then mice would chew through it. It was awesome.
The Engagement Aura. This
… this was a part of the deleted draft 4.5 of book two. Basically, in Rizkaland
people who were engaged had an aura about them that other engage-ees could see.
It was weird. After I deleted that draft, I never considered it again.
And
… there was probably more stuff. If I think of more, I’ll come back and add it!
Also, I'd just like to say that I'll be putting together the fanart post in an hour or two, so if you plan to submit artwork, hurry up and send it!
Cool! I think the engagement aura should be used, somewhere else. The weed scene could be interesting too, if done right. But it doesn't sound right for Amber.
ReplyDeleteI had thought that Sandra was a one-and-only. Multiple four-dimensional beings?
Oh, there was a whole race of them. Sandra and Jinallie were just the only two that could interact with our dimision. Well, Wallace and ... Hiiroto (I think that's how I spelled his name????) showed up once, but that was for a date.
DeleteI must have missed reading anything you had mentioned elsewhere.
DeleteYou had some interesting ideas! I've cut several scenes and paragraphs from my manuscripts, but have kept most of the extensive ones.
ReplyDeleteThe Weed Scene actually sounds rather interesting . . . not for Amber, but still interesting.
ReplyDeleteI like the Iron Noose idea, even if it is similar to The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.
ReplyDeleteThe iron noose concept is very interesting!
ReplyDeleteIron noose! Very Narnialike, but it's still really cool! :)
ReplyDeleteThe Iron Noose does indeed sound interesting, but yeah, I see LWW in it. The weed scene cracked me up, and Nerissa just sounds creepy.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting.
If I can find the notebook where it is, I'll share the weed scene with you guys. But I mislaid that notebook, so I make no promises.
Delete