out-takes | Leslie A. Lindsay| Writer & Creative

Fiction Friday: Deleted Scene

By Leslie Lindsay After careful review from my critique partner, this scene won’t be making the cut for my novel-in-progress, sad as that is… My repsonse: “I may have banged this out to understand my character’s story better.” Remember, even if the writing’s good, it doesn’t always have a place in your current story. So, I am saying good-bye to this piece but thought I’d at least give it a chance to be seen. Remember, this is original work. No part may be reproduced without consent from the author. Thank you. Annie 31 years ago Woodstock, GA “At five years old, I had long blonde hair, big blue eyes and was referred to as precocious. It was summer. The kitchen of my childhood home was blue, like the taste of muffins. An aloe vera plant grew in the windowsill, green smooth and slick. Cutlery clanged, filling the air with sparkly bursts of color. “Do it again!” I begged mom bouncing in my chair at the table. “Do what?” My mother turned slowly from the Whirlpool …

Fiction Friday: Blast from the Past

Published by Always with a Book

By Leslie Lindsay Welcome back for another “Fiction Friday!” Here is an “out-take” from my novel-in-progress. It just doesn’t add to the story, so I chose to remove it. But I still kind of liked it. Perhaps it will make it’s way into something else in the future? I find that I often go off on tangents like this to develop my characters, their backstory, and motivation. It’s a way for me to “pre-write,” if you will, you know–get the juices flowing before I can tackle my real characters and their real problems. For now, I am saving all of my out-takes in a document on my computer. Perhaps they will become inspiration for another project. What do you do with the snippets that no longer work? Okay, here goes: “There was Ellen, and Conor. They were separated at college. She was from a working-class Irish-American family who couldn’t afford to send her away to a nice college. Instead, she went to a small in-state institution not really well-respected, but it was better than nothing. Conor …