Sterling Terrell

smart ideas from books (mostly)

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You are here: Home / Not Books / Don’t Kill Your Darlings?

Don’t Kill Your Darlings?

Don’t Kill Your Darlings?

Maybe don’t kill your darlings?

The phrase “kill your darlings” is a lifelong foe. I’ve never quite understood it, prevalent as the idea can be. I take the injunction to mean I should get rid of the best parts of what I’m working on: the lines I feel especially alive while rereading, the metaphors so bewitching it seems possible I, too, along with the language, might be transfigured.

I always took this phrase as “don’t be afraid to edit out something that you love.”

You sacrifice a passage that you love for the betterment of the whole piece.

But I resist this too.

For even if I don’t like something here or there, someone else might.

In fact, I often turn discarded ideas into short blog posts and then press on with something else.

Done and done.

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Filed Under: Not BooksTagged With: #Blogging, #Writing

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