"Kill your darlings"
I think Hemingway said it originally, but I read that quotation in a Stephen King book about writing. I just had to kill one of my darlings in writing one of my stories today.
It was this great argument between these two main characters and you know, it had everything. Everything I wanted said, everything I wanted to show and it was well written too, but you know what? It was all about me. It was what I wanted to represent, not my characters. I loved writing it, and my friend didn't disagree with me when I showed it to her, but I didn't like it after a while. She managed to convince me to keep it in, because it did good things in representing one of the characters good education, and that was a good reason, but now that I look at it, I just don't like it.
It's not about me keeps coming back to my mind. No writer should just toss things in there when they feel like it, not bits of dialogue, not out of character moves, not anything like that. It just didn't work for my characters and as good as it was, it wasn't vitle to the story or the plot.
I hate it when authors just spring something on a reader, whether it's weird dialogue or weird character development I just can't stand it. For example, if you're writing a period piece, don't just have your characters jump into bed together. They would never do that, no matter how attracted they were to each other... unless one of them was getting paid. Also, if your characters have some sort of accent, don't switch. between southern and irish, just as an example. I think stories are better when they stick to accuracy and don't bow to artistic lisence. I also think that idea of artistic lisence, though useful, often gets overused and is used as an excuse to just do what ever you want to a story. For me, it damages the entire thing, especially with historical fiction.
Anyway, I'm off to inspect the hole I left in my story after killing my darling, but I just had to blab about it. Thanks for letting me.
It was this great argument between these two main characters and you know, it had everything. Everything I wanted said, everything I wanted to show and it was well written too, but you know what? It was all about me. It was what I wanted to represent, not my characters. I loved writing it, and my friend didn't disagree with me when I showed it to her, but I didn't like it after a while. She managed to convince me to keep it in, because it did good things in representing one of the characters good education, and that was a good reason, but now that I look at it, I just don't like it.
It's not about me keeps coming back to my mind. No writer should just toss things in there when they feel like it, not bits of dialogue, not out of character moves, not anything like that. It just didn't work for my characters and as good as it was, it wasn't vitle to the story or the plot.
I hate it when authors just spring something on a reader, whether it's weird dialogue or weird character development I just can't stand it. For example, if you're writing a period piece, don't just have your characters jump into bed together. They would never do that, no matter how attracted they were to each other... unless one of them was getting paid. Also, if your characters have some sort of accent, don't switch. between southern and irish, just as an example. I think stories are better when they stick to accuracy and don't bow to artistic lisence. I also think that idea of artistic lisence, though useful, often gets overused and is used as an excuse to just do what ever you want to a story. For me, it damages the entire thing, especially with historical fiction.
Anyway, I'm off to inspect the hole I left in my story after killing my darling, but I just had to blab about it. Thanks for letting me.