(editing)
Quick post today because what little time I have today needs to be focused on killing my darlings (words, that is).
From yesterday’s post, I mentioned the concept that as authors, we give birth to stories and words and they start to feel like our children. We get awfully protective of them, even snarky if people try to hurt them. But at some point, we have to realize that they are NOT children, they do NOT have feelings, and they–in many cases–are dragging down the story.
I think William Faulkner was one of the first to coin the phrase, “Kill your darlings,” and I couldn’t find a specific one that mentions drowning (*this is sounding awfully morbid–sorry), but here is Stephen King’s approach from his book “On Writing,” published in 2000. Knowing it’s coming from Stephen King will put the concept in perspective:
Stephen King “Mostly when I think of pacing, I go back to Elmore Leonard, who explained it so perfectly by saying he just left out the boring parts. This suggest cutting to speed the pace, and that’s what most of us end up having to do (kill your darlings, kill your darlings, even when it breaks your egocentric little scribbler’s heart, kill your darlings)…I got a scribbled comment that changed the way I rewrote my fiction once and forever. Jotted below the machine-generated signature of the editor was this mot: ‘Not bad, but PUFFY. You need to revise for length. Formula: 2nd Draft = 1st Draft – 10%. Good luck.’”“If you’ve never done it before, you’ll find reading your book over a six-week layoff to be a strange, often exhilarating experience. It’s yours, you’ll recognize it as yours, even be able to remember what tune was on the stereo when you wrote certain lines, and yet it will also be like reading the work of someone else, a soul-twin, perhaps. This is the way it should be, the reason you waited [to read your draft]. It’s always easier to kill someone else’s darlings than it is to kill your own.”
Focus. I can do this.
Wish me luck!
*disclaimer: I really am a normal, functioning, non-violent person–or as normal as authors ever are. FYI, finding a ‘normal’ picture of Stephen King was quite the experience.
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This is why I don't like the "baby" analogy for writing in the first place…if I think about hacking off bits and pieces of my child I feel kinda creepy…It is hard to find a replacement way to think about it though, it isn't JUST a product. Hmmm.I prefer to think along the lines of having a responsibility to tell my character's stories as best I can…so I have to…Oh, blah. We really are killing our babies ;)
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lol, thanks for the laugh.
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Hope you don't mind, Jessica, but I love what you wrote over on IndieJane, so I'll post the link here if people want to check it out. http://indiejane.org/2012/01/raising-your-baby/ It is a much nicer approach to writing than Stephen King's. :) Thanks for sharing.
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Thanks Rebecca, I'm glad you liked it. It came out of a very dramatic and painful rewrite, lol!
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