When a Character doesn’t add Character

lamps

How Do You Know a Character isn’t Working Out?
clothesline
 
Tonight, we are wrapping up Character Relationship month by talking about signs our characters are not working in the roles we have given them. 
 
Maybe they need to be recast in a different role. Maybe they don’t need to be in the book at all. Much to Stephen King’s disappointment, his editor for the first edition of The Stand, left a character, ‘the kid’ on the cutting room floor. 
 
I own both versions and the absence of ‘the kid’ did not change my enjoyment of the book. Of course, in a first edition, I didn’t miss anything at all. It was just that good.
 
After reading the uncut version of The Stand, well, ‘the kid’ added a creep factor and I never really bonded with him. In my readerly opinion, ‘the kid’ should have been cut from the first round. 
 
,