That which does not get used....

[lagilman]

The trick to revising is to know when to stop. You add in a bit, then expand on that bit, and it may be lovely, but it no longer fits where you're going with the scene, or changes the tone - and you liked the tone before, so this isn't a good thing. So you pull and you spackle, and the expanded bit has to go on the ash-heap, because there's no way to recycle it, no way to bring it back into the story in another place.  And yeah that hurts, even if it's just the ow of yanking off a bandaid to let the healed skin come forth...

Her wash-paddle raised, either to wail on him or defend herself, and he backed off quick-like, quicker than that. You never dissed a washerwoman not even by bad chance or mistake. They’d curse you into the bowels of the city, washerwomen would, and never let you out.

Comments

[mizkit.livejournal.com]

What an awesome, awesome couple of lines. <3

[lagilman]

I particularly loved the last bit, but keepingw it in would have given too much importance to the washerwomen, ho weren't important at all in this story, so...

[I'd really love to do something more with them, someday...maybe I can talk the guys into letting me write a character supplement to the game?]