36 | Killing a darling

Momentum all over the place!

Author

Samantha Garner
April 15, 2025

Deadmedia shares monthly peeks behind the scenes, writing updates, and creativity thoughts from SF/F author Samantha Garner. Learn more here.

Hi everyone,

When I last wrote to you, I was editing Twist the Branch (FKA Seeker of the Lost Song) after working with book coach Karen A. Parker. I’ve finished that first pass of edits, and yesterday I picked up my printed-out manuscript from a local printer so I can go through it again that way. Isn’t it beautiful?

I’ve done this many times but I’ll never get over how different it feels to edit a hardcopy vs editing a digital copy. It’s wild how often the hardcopy pass will illuminate something obvious that I somehow never saw in all of my digital passes.

The biggest change: no more Kaija

The hardest decision I made with this version was tightening up the main cast a bit. There had formerly been six: one main character and five friends on their quest together. It was fun to see how they naturally paired up and did their little subversive tasks in service of uncovering the truth about their suppressed history and magic.

Yet, something felt off. It was too neat to have them in three groups of two so often. It also meant that the main character Elis was often not involved in what some people did—which is fine sometimes, but it happened too much. So I decided: Elis’ best friend character Kaija would be the best one to go. She was the most redundant, the one who seemed least critical to the plot, especially since I saw ways I could easily give her “stuff” to two other characters. That’d flesh those two characters out more too.

I rewrote my outline without Kaija and was surprised at how well it worked. It wasn’t easy, but it worked. For a while I was a little sad. I’ve been working on this novel actively since 2018, and Kaija has been there since the very first iteration, when it was just the beginnings of a short story. I even named her after myself, in a way (‘Kaija’ is related to ‘Kaisa,’ my middle name). I missed her. I felt a bit like I was betraying her.

But then I edited the book with my revised outline in mind, and saw how much stronger it was without her. It was tighter. The remaining characters shifted into new configurations, which meant their interactions felt livelier and more dynamic. And a lot had changed since the aforementioned short story anyway. As soon as it had become a novel, it turned into a story of Elis trying to protect her younger brother. As an older sister of a brother I have felt lots of guilt and protectiveness for in my life, it was the story I wanted to tell. It meant I had to elevate that relationship and give it the weight Kaija’s relationship was taking from it. It was the right decision.

I’m sorry, Kaija. I hope you understand.

And since I removed Kaija, I had to update the book’s description:

“History begins where magic ends”

In the paranoid Leitir Empire, Elis Kalevi knows that standing out is dangerous. Fear keeps the Vetsi people from asking why their stories and language are suppressed, and why the Empire insists there was no history before Leitir longships landed on Vetsi shores five centuries ago. Questioning the edicts of Empire violates Memorylaw and is punished by something known only as “rehabilitation.”

When Elis’ brother Edrik loses control of the forbidden nature magic he once concealed and they’re both marked for rehabilitation, they escape to follow a rumoured awakening magic in the east—and unfamiliar memories of ancient spell-song Elis starts receiving. Travelling with the only two people she trusts and two enigmatic strangers, Elis must uncover her people’s buried history before her mind is overtaken by someone else’s memories. Or before their deception catches up to them.

Inspired by pre-colonial Filipino culture and medieval Finland under Swedish rule, Twist the Branch explores the mutability of history, the power of the collective, and small actions that fracture oppressive systems. Garner draws on the historical commonalities between her two cultures in a timeless and timely story of reclaiming lost history.

I want to hear from you!

Thanks for reading Deadmedia today. I’d love to hear what you thought—leave me a comment or hit reply to send me an email!

Talk soon,
-Sg.

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