• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Nora Phoenix

Nora Phoenix

Steamy MM Romance Author

  • Books
    • Translations
    • Ballsy Boys
    • Forty-Seven Duology
    • The Foster Brothers
    • Ignite
    • Irresistible Dragons
    • Irresistible Omegas
    • Kinky Boys
    • No Regrets
    • No Shame Series
    • Perfect Hands
    • Stand Alones
    • White House Men
  • Shop
    • Paperbacks
    • Swag
    • eBooks
    • Cart
    • Checkout
  • Reading Order
  • About
    • Contact
    • Privacy, Affiliate, and Commenting Statement
  • Submit A Deal
    • Submit a Weekly Deal
    • Submit a German Release or Deal
  • Blog
  • FREE Stuff
  • WIPs

Deleted Scenes: Yay or Nay?

February 25, 2022 by Nora 16 Comments

Before there was Netflix (I know, I’m old, haha), I used to binge-watch a lot of TV series and would have to wait eagerly for the DVD boxes to come out. Two elements were always my favorite: the blooper reel and the deleted scenes. The first was laugh-out-loud funny, of course, but the second was even cooler. It offered even more of my favorite characters…

Then, and I still don’t know what changed it, I slowly started feeling differently about deleted scenes. I came to realize that there’s a reason they’re deleted. Sometimes, it was because network shows run on a tight time frame and they were just too long. But other times, I found myself watching them and agreeing that it was for the better they’d been deleted. As much as I love the Lord of the Rings, for example, the extended version is really, reallllllly long. 

In book box sets, I loved deleted scenes as well. Again, why wouldn’t I, when they offered more of the characters I loved so much? But here, the same thing happened. I would read them and then agree that yes, they didn’t belong in the book. Only rarely did I feel a deleted scene should’ve been included in the original book. I still love them, don’t get me wrong, but I could almost always see why they weren’t included.

I only have one box set with deleted scenes, the No Shame box set. My other box sets only have bonus materials in the form of extra chapters (for example in the Irresistible Omegas box sets) or sometimes even a whole novella (like in my Ignite box set). Part of that is because I don’t often have deleted scenes anymore. The No Shame series was my first series, so I’ve learned a lot since then and my writing process has become more efficient. I usually detect much earlier when a scene isn’t working so I can still change course.

But even when I released the box set for my No Shame series, I debated long before including some deleted scenes. In the end, I decided to put them in. Funny enough, the most important reason was because I felt they don’t belong in the original. Well, some of them. Two of the deleted scenes were taken out because I decided to start the fourth book, No Shame, at a different point in the timeline. But I’d already written two scenes when I realized it didn’t work, so those offer truly a behind the scenes view that doesn’t change the original story. 

The other two, I still feel I was right to take them out. Don’t get me wrong, they’re both hella sexy and I did use some paragraphs of them later on, but they didn’t really fit the vision for the series. 

So why did I decide to include them? Maybe because some readers will feel differently about deleted scenes and will love the extra time with their favorite characters. And maybe because I wanted to show that there are reasons why authors take whole scenes out, even when they’ve spent hours crafting them. It hurts to “throw away” words like that, but there’s usually a good reason. 

But now I’m curious how you feel about deleted scenes: yay or nay? Do you love them, hate them, or couldn’t care less?

Filed Under: All Posts, Nora's Musings

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Jennifer Clubine says

    February 25, 2022 at 10:06 pm

    I enjoy deleted scenes. When it’s in a movie I like when the director comments why it was deleted. Sometimes it’s because it was redundant, sometimes it didn’t fit the mood. Most often, it was for time, because the movie was running too long. Many times, I felt the cut portion gave some additional insight into a character. With your books, I really liked the deleted parts. I enjoyed the thought process. But I’d be OK not knowing what was cut or changed as well. Just keep doing what you do.

    Reply
  2. Ishita Sehanabish says

    February 26, 2022 at 9:51 am

    I love deleted scenes.. they make me want to read the book more than twice 🤭🤭

    Reply
  3. Emily says

    February 26, 2022 at 12:12 pm

    Yay on deleted scenes! For me, any extra time with characters I love is always a good thing.

    Reply
  4. Katja Hegewald says

    February 26, 2022 at 12:34 pm

    I love deleted scenes because sometimes they give a different view of the background. You also imagine how they fit into the actual scene. I am very much for it.

    Reply
  5. Kathy Daemmrich says

    February 26, 2022 at 1:12 pm

    sell the extras separately so if you already purchased the series, you can get these too. I really like that idea.

    Reply
  6. RH says

    February 26, 2022 at 3:09 pm

    I despise deleted scenes and never read/ watch them. For me, they destroy the cannon and ruin the entire experience. Fiction relies on a creator’s ability to get the audience to suspend disbelief and feel like the characters and stories are real. Deleted scenes (and blooper reels) completely ruin all that work.

    Reply
  7. Guin Reese says

    February 26, 2022 at 4:00 pm

    I enjoy deleted scenes very much. I normally read them when the author refers to them at the end of a book.

    Reply
  8. Cindy says

    February 26, 2022 at 5:04 pm

    Deleted scenes at the end of a book can be a lot of fun to read. And when they’re at the end, each person can choose to read them or skip them. I’ve enjoyed the short, additional scenes and bloopers that are included at the end of some movies. Yes, I’ve now been sucked into staying through the credits just to see if any have been included. It’s worth it; they’re fun!

    Reply
  9. Vickie says

    February 26, 2022 at 5:05 pm

    I enjoy reading deleted scenes. Sometimes it adds a little extra to the story. And sometimes one thinks no wonder it was deleted. It is just an added bonus to the story. Thanks

    Reply
  10. Marsha Respess says

    February 26, 2022 at 7:04 pm

    I enjoy reading deleted scenes very much.

    Reply
  11. Daniele says

    February 26, 2022 at 7:45 pm

    I agree that there was a reason deleted scenes were deleted. I feel guilty for not reading them, but they’re not my cup of tea.

    Reply
  12. Princess says

    February 27, 2022 at 5:52 am

    I love deleted scenes, they’re part of the process. I’m sure we all have scenes in our lives that we’d love to delete. I like a HEA just as much as the next guy but I’m more interested in how we got there. It’s not just about the characters but the author too. Nobody sits down and writes the perfect story beginning to end. If I love the book, if I’ve read it a thousand times, chances are I’ve deconstructed it at least half of those times and I wonder about the road not taken. Deleted scenes feed that curiousity. Does that make any sense?

    Reply
  13. Robin says

    February 27, 2022 at 11:08 am

    I generally enjoy reading deleted scenes because, in addition to spending more time with the characters, it also gives a glimpse to the author’s thought processes and story development. Honestly it depends on the book/characters/author whether I’m interested enough to read them. If they’re just an excuse for more sex, I’ll skip it, thanks. But if the scenes focus more on character and/or relationship development (even if that does include sex), I’ll gobble it up. Yeah, yeah, I’m one of those that generally skips the sex scenes because….gross. Don’t judge me! I’m all about the character and relationship development (people are fascinating, even if they are fictional) and I understand that includes physical expressions of emotion, I Just don’t care to read much about that part. I also really enjoy the underlying plot lines: how these two (or more) came together, what keeps them together and will there be explosions?? And, Nora, you do all that SO well. So, whether or not you offer deleted scenes, I’ll keep reading your books!

    Reply
  14. M Miller says

    March 1, 2022 at 10:57 am

    I adore deleted/extended scenes. With movies, I consider them part of the “you didn’t get to see this because it messed up the pace” but it’s a perfectly valid part of the movie. With books, they’re never the parts that got tossed out of the books… it’s always little vignettes of behind the scene action. I like the peeks behind the stories. I almost never want to let my book families to go… so reading the extra scenes means I get to spend some extra time with them. And I love that!

    Reply
  15. Rachel says

    May 24, 2022 at 11:34 am

    I don’t mind deleted scenes in movies sometimes because they can add insight into characters, but I vastly prefer bonus material for books. My biggest pet peeve honestly is when something has been labeled a bonus scene, and I discover that it is instead a deleted scene that takes place before the epilogue of the book. If it was important, it would have been included.

    Reply
  16. Gorgina Bedwell says

    July 8, 2022 at 3:17 am

    Yep I love them , it added to the story for me.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

New Release

See The Book

Recent Posts

  • MM Romance Reader Survey 2022 Results
  • First Teaser from Loathed – Lagan
  • Erwan Doyle – Dragon’s Mate
  • Rhene Hightower – Dragon’s Mate
  • The Fastest and Slowest Books I’ve Written

Categories

  • All Posts
  • Character Interviews
  • Cover Reveal
  • Latest news
  • Listopia
  • Mini Reviews
  • Nora's Musings
  • Teasers
  • Uncategorized
  • Weekly Deals
  • Weekly Poll
  • Writing and Publishing MM Romances

Footer

Upcoming Events

GLO (GayRom Lit Oz) – Sydney, Australia (15 April 2023)

RARE Melbourne – Australia (21-23 April 2023)

RARE London - London, UK (8 July 2023)

WANT BLOG POST NOTIFICATIONS?

If you’d like to receive the posts on this blog in your email, sign up for email blog posts here. You’ll receive each new blog post straight into your email box.

PRIVACY AND AFFILIATES

Make sure to read this blog’s Privacy, Affiliate, and Commenting Statement.

Shop · Cart · Checkout · Account

Copyright © 2023 · Powered by ModFarm Sites · Log in