There’s an old piece of writing advice that gets passed around like a family heirloom: “Kill your darlings.” It’s the idea that sometimes you have to cut even the parts of your book you love the most for the greater good of the story.
Sounds noble when you say it out loud. Feels a lot less noble when you’re staring at a 6,000-word chapter you’ve lived with for months, hovering over the delete key.
That’s where I found myself today.
The Chapter That Almost Made It
I won’t spoil which chapter it was, or where it would have appeared in Ephemeris. But I will say this: it was one of my favorites. It had strong imagery, a character I loved spending time with, and a rhythm that felt alive under my fingers as I wrote it.
And yet…it didn’t fit.
It wasn’t that the chapter was bad. It wasn’t even that it was off-theme. It was that, as the full manuscript came together, I realized this section slowed the pace at a moment when the reader needed to feel momentum. Keeping it there would have been like hitting the brakes in the middle of a chase scene.
Cutting it was the right choice for the book. But knowing that didn’t make it hurt any less.
Why It Had to Go
When you’re deep in a project – especially one as sprawling as a novel – you start to see the story not as a single thread, but as a tapestry. Every chapter is a stitch, and when one stitch starts to pull in a different direction, it can warp the whole pattern.
That’s what this chapter was doing. It had beauty. It had weight. But it wasn’t moving in sync with the rest of the story’s heartbeat.
The hardest part was admitting that my attachment to it was emotional, not structural. I loved it because I loved it, not because it was serving the story in the best possible way.
The Moment of Deletion
There’s a strange, almost ceremonial feeling to removing a big chunk of work from your manuscript. You highlight it, you hit “cut,” and for a split second the page feels hollow. Then you keep going.
I didn’t just delete it from my hard drive. I gave it a proper send-off: I copied it into its own document, titled it, and stored it in a folder I use for “orphaned” scenes. That way, it wasn’t gone forever…just waiting for a new home.
And that’s when I had an idea.
Resurrecting the Chapter — Exclusively for Readers
If this chapter didn’t belong in the official Ephemeris timeline, maybe it could have a different life. After all, one of the most common questions readers ask authors is: “What didn’t make it into the book?”
That’s when it hit me: this would make the perfect piece of exclusive bonus content for people who subscribe to my ColePress LLC newsletter (which as I write this doesn’t even exist yet! haha).
Here’s why:
- It’s fully written and polished enough to stand alone.
- It offers a deeper look into the world of Ephemeris without spoiling the core narrative.
- It rewards the most engaged readers with something they can’t get anywhere else.
When the time comes, I’ll send it out only to my email subscribers: a behind-the-scenes glimpse at a corner of the story that almost made the final cut.
Turning Loss into Connection
Cutting a chapter might feel like losing something, but framing it as bonus content changes the energy. It turns Hector (*hint*) into a gift instead of a casualty.
It also builds a bridge between the process of making the book and the people who will eventually read it. Instead of that chapter sitting in a digital drawer gathering dust, it’ll go directly into the hands of readers who are curious enough to peek behind the curtain.
That, to me, feels like the best kind of recycling.
Why This Matters Beyond the Book
This experience reminded me of something I think all creatives eventually learn: not everything you create belongs where you first imagine it. Some work is meant to be shifted, reshaped, or repurposed.
A cut scene from a novel can become a short story. A rejected illustration can inspire a whole new series. A fragment of dialogue can spark a different character in a future book.
The important part is not to confuse “cut” with “worthless.”
The Takeaway for Writers (and Readers)
If you’re a writer: don’t be afraid to make the hard cuts, but also don’t be so quick to throw those pieces away. They might still have a role to play: maybe not in the book you’re working on now, but somewhere down the road.
If you’re a reader: know that every finished book has ghosts – scenes, lines, and even whole chapters that were loved but ultimately left behind. Getting to see those ghosts is like flipping through a director’s notebook. You get to experience the story from a whole new angle.
Want to Read the Lost Chapter (and others)?
When the time is right, I’ll be sending this cut chapter (and lots of other fun stuff that didn’t make it into the final edition) of Ephemeris only to subscribers of my (yet unnamed) ColePress LLC newsletter. It won’t be posted on the blog. It won’t be on social media. It’ll be only for that inner circle of readers who want the full experience.
If you’re curious, you can subscribe here so you don’t miss it.
Because sometimes the chapters you lose are just stories waiting for a different kind of audience.
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