Poor Abused Darlings

[filamena]

We've all heard it, right? Kill your darlings. Im told its one of those brilliant gems of writing advice that will fix your work. Im also told its one of those gems of writing advice a lot of people tend to get wrong

Comments

[machineiv]

I don't like the wording of the phrase "kill your darlings." I think it sounds kind of like, "Remove what you like." Although I understand the phrase, I just don't like it as a non contextual piece of advice.

In the situation where you used that phrase, the biggest thing that I need to fix is far from a darling, IMO. It may be a crutch and bad habit, but it's not something I like or appreciate about my writing. It's something I do need to work on, but I'd never use the word "darling" to describe it. I might use "nemesis."

I'm rather excited to start my rewrites later today.

[filamena]

I see what you're saying, but I've never looked at that trope to apply to mechanics. Might be the way I'm wired, but darlings never made me think of commas or overly long sentences.

See how much explanation it took you to get that through to my thick skull? I know I'm not -the- densest writer out there either. Maybe it's something were all supposed to know, maybe -that's- what they teach you in collage. I just feel like its a phrase tossed around lightly that has no substance without a lot of explanation but it's tossed around like its self explanatory. (And I'm not picking on you because you just used the phrase, I've been thinking about it for a while now. I've used it myself plenty of times.)

Maybe we should be saying 'break your crutches.'

[filamena]

Assigned work is good work to help you step back from a project, at least for me. In writing for White Wolf and dull article freelancing is a great reminder that it isn't just my name attached to a pile of words. (Hell, sometimes it won't have my name on it at all.)

I've always been of the attitude that it's best to err on the side of the 'editor is always right' and write nothing sacred. Or if you do write something sacred, keep it to yourself. But of course, not everyone has that mindset.

Still in all, I love the visual of a draft being a pile of body parts. Nomnomnom!