Killing Your Darlings- What Moment Hurt to Cut from your Comic/Novel?

DanielRKM 2025-04-10 14:51:39 UTC #1

We've all had to kill some darlings on the road to storytelling.

What moment really hurt your soul to cut?
And were you ever able to salvage that moment for a different story/moment later on?

For my first comic, The Unstoppable Monkey Bunny, I had this wonderful scene occur right before the final battle and I still can't get over (I never finished the comic in its original form, but did revisit the arc in a later story- fleshing out the missing years). But in this cut moment- the core group of characters were experiencing some much-needed downtime, sitting around the table from each other and listening to the song "The End" from The Beatles' Abbey Road album (not even kidding). Despite the comic taking place on a distant world far into the future, I had imagined the human colonizers brought relics of the past with them, and somehow, The Beatles made their way into Penny's house. Despite her being deaf, her mom used to sign to her the lyrics of their songs as bedtime stories and the bass' pulsating rhythms soothed her to sleep every night. I integrated the lyrics from the various motifs found within the song and used them to underscore the emotion each member of her team was feeling right before going into battle. I don't think I could ever use that exact scene in a different story because of how personal that moment was to each character, but maybe one day I'll make it to commemorate the start of my comics journey.

My comics can be found on my link tree:

Now it's your turn.

Leyelle 2025-04-10 15:02:48 UTC #2

Hmm, one scene I cut I think I would figure out how to add back in later in a new edition of "Sun With A Paper Crown" but it's a scene where Mrs. Moon talks about when Kattar was a baby, and how she taught him to put himself to bed from a very young age.

DanielRKM 2025-04-10 15:30:15 UTC #3

As a father, I can tell you how monumental a moment like that feels (also really bittersweet too).

Leyelle 2025-04-10 15:31:32 UTC #4

well, under other circumstances, this is something healthy to teach your child, but the way Mrs. Moon did it was not. It's the reason he's 29 and still afraid of the dark

yaziroburrows 2025-04-10 19:20:44 UTC #5

hmm, for me, it was the prologue.

I had originally planned to do a prologue to show the personality of the first evil dragon and why he became that way. Basically, the death/murder of his son was more than he could bear, and he blamed the Emperor and Empress for not protecting him. It eventually caused him to want to destroy the empire he had protected for centuries, causing him to be the first Evil Dragon

Considering Cyran dies and resets time in the first chapter, however, having the prologue be about death and the first chapter be about death felt awkward, and I was worried people would think Cyran was just Kapral or Thorne reincarnated and confuse things.

It sucks, because since Cyran only cares about why he's connected to Kapral and not who Kapral was, there is really no reason to have it explored in the actual story. I may try and have someone else look into and tell Cyran, but it still won't hit the same as when I planned to tell it from Kapral's POV.

annuskabriar 2025-04-10 20:34:44 UTC #6

lots of stuff, honestly. my comic was WAY too long - still is much too long, so it'll be going on for years presumably aha - so i had to cut a lot of characters (or make them background ones we dont learn about) and a good amount of scenes. what im most disappointed about is cutting Maya's arc with her father and heritage, in a way that involved the rest of the plot; i may still do a short spinoff about her backstory, but that specific arc was tied into the main plot so i had to completely get rid of it : / it tied in especially to her relationship with Astrid (cough gay cough) but there just wasn't time.

I had also wanted to go into Cardinal's backstory in the main story but no time. however, i am planning on doing a shorter spinoff with him once im done the main plot! for funsies.

kyupol 2025-04-10 20:45:50 UTC #7

This whole story arc I had to cut because I was already getting bored of doing that particular comic. Was basically rushing it to completion

NGChloe 2025-04-11 16:25:37 UTC #8

I was originally going to give Tempestas a redemption arc over the course of the first season, but as it went on, it seemed more natural to not do that. Also I just didn't feel like it fit the pacing we were going for. So I cut it and had Tempestas double down. That's prolly the only real time I've cut something out that had been in the long term planning phases