Nothing is ever wasted

 I’m continuing to dig into my old novel this week. teasing out which parts of the story I can re-use, and what needs to be re-worked.

I’m working from the original completed manuscript, but some of the main characters have had to be either completely discarded, or tweaked in various ways.  Jian, my starship coder, has disappeared completely from the narrative.  She’s been replaced by Cloud Sherman, a pilot.  Jian’s dusky skin has turned into Cloud’s white face, but she’s kept Jian’s telepathic ability.  I’ve added the twist that she’s an unregistered telepath.

The sentient starship Chilai from the original books which Jian coded with her proprietory code, has now become the fast lighter The Tiger’s Eye.  She is still a sentient AI, but the new twist is that she was created as part of an illegal biotech programme.

Hyam Scwanberger in the original book was a white businessman.  In the rewrite, he’s become black, and Scwanberger is a false name.  Hyam has received death threats from his younger brother, and has disguised his identity to avoid getting killed.

Brett, the ex-Landforce Scwanberger security guy, is so far the only one of the main characters who has remained unaltered, and there’s a good reason for that.  A while ago, inspired by the format of Becky Chambers’ A Closed and Common Orbit, I set myself the challenge of telling Brett’s story in two alternating timelines.  I have a complete chapter plan for that proposed book, sitting in a ring binder.  It took me several iterations to get the two timelines to mesh, and I’m still pleased that I got the storyline to work.  So I want to keep that for a potential book further down the line.

I won’t need most of that information for my re-written novel, but Brett’s history will come into the book at several points.  I’ll be able to use elements of his backstory straight from that old chapter plan.  I also have a half-written novel about starship engineer Mai.  I’ve switched Mai from white to black, but most of her background can stay in some way.

In this new book every one of the viewpoint characters is keeping a secret.  The events of the story force them to reveal their secrets to each other.  The new book will use many of the events in the original manuscript, tweaked to fit the new characters and storyline.

The original manuscript goes back well over twenty years, and I’ve always loved the setting of an orbital shipyard, so I have made it even more of a character in the new book.  All of which goes to show that nothing is ever wasted.  Old stories that don’t work can always be recycled into new forms.