When to remove characters

OK, so in my WIP I had an MC enterouge of 6 people (3 people returning from previous book). One of the problems I'm having is one of my new MC's doesn't seem to do anything. Originally I added her because she works in the formal resistance to the antagonists faction. Then I decided to have her be a romantic foil for one of the other characters but I don't like that anymore due to other plot things. I've tried to do character building worksheets to uncover more of her character but she still seems to fall so flat. It kills me to cut her out, but I'm debating just removing her from the book and having it be 5 MC's (or possibly combining parts of her role in the book with one of the other characters that already exists). When do you decide to remove characters? Any particular moment/exercise that helps you? I've had her in my head so long that it just kills me to cut her out completely but I'm afraid I may have to save her for another story....

 

When they're not working. When their usefulness has ended.

What purpose does she serve now? From the sounds of it, none.

How is she falling flat though? Maybe we can help with that part?

 

Also curious about the flatness. If you're this sad to lose her, there must be something interesting about her.

 

I make it a point to keep my character's realistic. Instead of having three female MC's that are all blonde and sexy; my female MC's were very physically flawed. One is covered in scars and shaves her head. One is described as "tall, gangly, and lacking typical feminine curves with a low voice." The MC I'm cutting is the opposite. She is the epitome of a sex symbol, trained as a seductress who attempts to break free from this role by proving she is more than just tits and legs. I really liked this about her; but the more the story goes she just never seems to actually add anything to the story itself.

 

How is she proving it? Maybe the issue is that she's just not flawed enough?

 

I've done this with my current novel- in a somewhat different form. Realized I'd lost the enthusiasm for the story as it was so rebuilt from the ground up, and realized 2 of my MC's just didn't seem to fit in it any more. So I'm taking them out to put them in another story.

 

That is an interesting thought.

 

I think that's your answer right there. If a character isn't doing anything, what's the point of them? If you can cut them without changing the story, what are they there for? I'm all for combining roles to keep a cast from getting too unwieldy - plus it makes more room for the remaining characters to be complex.

I will say, though, when I've decided to cut characters I've never been particularly attached to them. I get pretty invested in my characters (character building being one of my favorite aspects of writing!) so if one's just not clicking for me, that's usually a sign on its own that they might need to go. If you really do like her, I'd echo Chicken and say there must be something in there you can use. Maybe the primary thing you like about her just isn't a good fit for this particular story, and yeah, you can reuse her for something else.

In plotting my uf novel, I realized that a character I'd planned to kill off didn't actually get much screentime, so I knew his death wasn't going to have as much of an impact as I would want it to. I figured my two options were to remove him and the death entirely, or play his role up, and I wanted to keep the death for tonal reasons. By this point I had a pretty solid outline, so I went through it scene by scene and said, "Can I reasonably put Hal in this scene?" If yes, then Hal goes in the scene to be the charming, fatherly, slightly bumbling guy he is, hopefully endearing himself to everyone before his untimely demise. Another character's role even shrunk some to give him more screentime.

I'm still not sure if I made the right choice, but I think the method itself worked. Always think, "Can [character] be playing a more crucial role here?" If yes, let her do it. You don't have to keep this version of events - you can always decide to ax her anyway. But play around with it and see how much more active you can have her be in the plot, how much more development you can give her throughout.

 

Although she may not serve in the story as a main character, there is no reason she cannot serve as a supporting character, if she fits (her story/contribution) and adds to the story in the reduced role.

 

I think you need to consider why you feel so strongly about keeping her. What is it that you think she adds to the story? If @TWErvin2's suggestion of making her a minor character irritates you (and it may, if you feel this strongly about wanting to keep her, then @Trish's idea would be the way to go - more has to be wrong with her - or, maybe more has to go wrong for her. After all, things going wrong are what make the story.

 

Lots of good suggestions here. I'm most intrigued by @izzybot 's suggestion about combining characters. I know that might elicit an initially negative response if you have this character fixed in your mind. But this is the stage where you can change things. What if you gave one of your other characters this characters's traits ...and maybe some of her plot points as well?

I'm interested in this approach because I did it myself, when I was working on my novel. I did combine a couple of minor characters, and it worked well. It not only made the resulting single character more complex (in a good sense) but it made the cast of characters smaller and easier to work with.

 

I take your point certainly but I'd be cautious of combing characters. There's certainly ways that it can work, especially if you had a character who only needs to do one thing in plot, you can probably consolidate that into another character with no great loss. But I would shy away from keeping a character around in any guise just because you like them.

For the OP I feel like merging characters would be the wrong thing to do; it's almost looking for an excuse to keep someone in the story just for themselves. For my money this is a case where you need to kill your darlings.

In the end; a book has finite space and the reader has finite attention. If a character isn't pulling their weight then just let them go. That doesn't mean forgetting them forever; if you like them so much then write another story for them, somewhere that they have something to do. But whether as an MC, a secondary or a combined character; you can't have people standing around doing nothing. There's no such thing as interesting by proxy.

 

I think there's a lot of merit to this approach. If a character doesn't figure into the story in any meaningful way, then drop them (or demote them.)

I think @ChickenFreak hit on a good point, though. Why does @Jak of Hearts so dearly want to keep a character who obviously isn't pulling her weight? If Jak can come up with why, that might help her resolve the issue.

If it's a matter of plot—the character no longer fits the plot—then that's probably a good reason to take her out of the story and maybe build another story around her. If the character is beginning to seem less 'real' or less useful, though, a combination of what is good about her attached to another character might be a way to go.

I suspect this issue requires a lot more thought. It's good that Jak has recognised the problem, though. First step in solving it!

 

I think it's understandable to want to stick with a character just because you enjoy writing them; something about their voice or their perspective that really clicks with you personally. I know exactly this kind of character because I've written some of them in my older books; someone who's darkly sardonic hovering around the plot but not really doing anything, just snarking in the same way I would if I was a fly on the wall there.

But yes, I think realizing that your character doesn't have anything to do is the first step towards killing your darlings. Now you just have to swing the axe

 

As always you've all given me some interesting thoughts to ponder. I do, however, think I may have to just give her the axe (for now). I could probably spend more time trying to make her more flawed and create more interesting dynamics for her, but since I can remove her without effecting the story at all I'll probably just do that.

 

I think that's the real test that matters here.

I do feel your pain; when I got feedback about cutting bits of my last project my knee jerk reaction was to start saying why it was so important and mattered and was so great. But I quickly realized that it doesn't effect anything to cut it, and it was pulling focus off important things as well as being confusing due to POV shifts and just cutting it was the best thing to do.

 

I was thinking this, too, but decided it was secondary to the asked question of eliminating the character or not. Are the six characters really main characters, each with their own story, quest and setbacks, which the reader will learn? Or is there one mc and the other five a group of associated (i.e. supporting) characters?

 

In my first book it was 5 MC's who all had equal screen time with a shifting 3rd person POV; and although each of them had their own sort of personal growth path, they were all on a single mission together. This one, which I'm writing as a sequal is essentially the same. They are all relatively equal heroes in the quest and while most of them are actually tied into the plot, the one I'm thinking of cutting is not. This is also why making her a supporting character I don't think would work, given the dynamics of the rest of the group, having one character who has half the amount of screentime would seem weird and it would make more sense to remove her entirely.

 

In that case, writing her out should be easy to do. If this is part of an ongoing series, you might want to do it in such a way that she can be brought back in a later work if you want.