Peggy Arthur

By Peggy Arthur

Greetings!

There’s a version of every story that never makes it into the book.

It lives in deleted scenes, abandoned subplots, and characters who once felt essential yet quietly stepped aside so the story could breathe.

This week, I want to talk about that version of The Pretender’s Game.

The Scenes I Let Go Of

I deleted several scenes during revision. One of the longest, and hardest to release, began at Hemi’s best friend’s house. In those pages, her husband appeared to play a significant role. So significant, in fact, that the scenes created an illusion of importance that the story itself never intended to uphold.

For a long time, I believed that scene was necessary. I convinced myself it justified a particular turn in the narrative. I held onto it because it explained things.

But explanation is not the same as clarity.

False Weight and the Illusion of Worth

What that scene really did was give weight where none was needed. It pulled focus. It suggested meaning that didn’t belong to the core of the story. It added detail but not depth. 

And if I’m being honest, my hesitation to cut it had less to do with the story and more to do with something else entirely:
word count.

I was focused on the wrong thing (as we often are in life).

Because in the end, it isn’t the number of words that matters it’s the integrity of the story. 

What Cutting Taught Me

Letting go of that scene taught me something essential about writing:

Stories have pacing, tone, and rhythm.

They move like music.

When a story is in flow, you can feel it. When it’s disrupted, you can feel that too, even if you can’t immediately name why. That scene, though well-written, disrupted the rhythm. It slowed the pace. It risked derailing the reader and dulling the tension.

Once it was gone, the story stood on its own.

Stronger. Clearer. More intentional.

No Words Are Ever Wasted reality.
And words, chosen with care, become a story worth following

Deleting scenes doesn’t mean the work was wasted.

Those words weren’t lost; they were refocused.

They taught me restraint. They taught me to trust the story instead of over-justifying it. They reminded me that not everything the writer knows needs to be shown to the reader.

When the rhythm is right, thought becomes. 

What’s a scene, character, or idea you had to let go of and what did it teach you about your story? I’d love to hear from you, comment below. 

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#BehindTheBook #WritingProcess #CuttingScenes #StoryCraft #WritingTruth #StoryRhythm #NarrativeFlow #ThePretendersGame