Now that book two is with the editor, I’m going through book three, and I’ve decided for the first time to more or less combine two characters.

I’ve deleted a character before (sorry, Hal), and I thought at first that that was what I’d be doing here. Nope. I’ve ended up combining two characters instead, which I think is something different.

The character I’m getting rid of is Agatha. She’s a minor character, one of the villain’s band–the only member of the band who has (had?) a name and didn’t end up needing one.

I’ve combined Agatha with another villain character (a seer, in fact) named Gertrude, who is much more pivotal to the plot because of her power. Her power influences not only the actions of the bad guys but also the actions of a good guy in a pivotal scene, after he learns about her ability to see the future.

Combining these two has worked great. Agatha was a sorceress, so I’ve had to rewrite some dialogue, seeing that Gertrude is NOT able to cast spells, but Agatha never did much with her magic on page until the final showdown anyway, so that’s not an issue. I can change Agatha’s character at the end of the book to be an unnamed enemy sorceress in the big bad’s army, if I don’t end up deleting that whole portion of the action, which I might, depending how much I end up judging it contributes to the story.

Before that point, I’m combining her with Gertrude, which is fabulous because it’s not only giving Gertrude more page-time, but it’s making her much more menacing in terms of her personality. BOTH of those things will help readers remember Gertrude more than they otherwise would. Gertrude’s going to stick out now, and I want her to stick out. She needs to.

So basically, I’m super happy with how this edit is going.

I have been through this book I don’t know how many dozens of times in the last decade, so I’m stunned to have realized this late in the game that this change is a great idea. But I’m happy.