A pitiful, many-syllabled moan escaped George at that point, not unlike what one might expect to hear from a stranded jellyfish begging to be returned to the waves. However, jellyfish cannot talk, and George normally found no problem in this task.
Deleted from the chapter, “Sedgely”
The cravat scene at the end of Chapter 1 is a favorite of mine. It makes me laugh! The shortened version is still funny, but it was hard to cut anything out. Here is the original.
Originally, this was chapter 2, between “Apprentice” and “In the Warehouse”. I liked it in that it gave a little view of Ezra’s character that you don’t get anywhere else, and because it foreshadowed going to sea. It was cut from the final copy in order to help get the story going faster, but I couldn’t bear to drop Silas’ story. Instead, I pushed it all on farther ahead where originally Silas finished the story. It was a struggle to decide whether to put the whole thing in the final draft, or let it cut off where it did originally.
Deleted Chapter, “In the Shop”
This was originally chapter 4, placed between “In the Warehouse” and “Orukter Amphibolos”. Again, it was cut to speed up the process of getting to sea. I thought it added an important development in Ezra’s and George’s relationship. Up until then they were mostly at odds. In this chapter they began to work together to narrowly avoid getting into trouble yet again.
Octopencil 