“In writing, you must kill all your darlings” ― William Faulkner
“Murder your darlings. ” ― F. Scott Fitzgerald
These two quotes will be well known to anyone who has studied literature or creative writing.
For those who don’t know it, don’t worry it doesn’t mean literally commit some gory crime.
It does means that when you’re editing, you must sometimes ‘kill’ i.e. delete, your most favourite characters or plot twists.
It isn’t easy to do, but you can do it!
I guess the main thing to remember is that if you can cut them and your work still stands then they were surplus to requirements anyway.
Another tactic is to merge characters, making two into one, so you don’t lose them altogether.
WRITER’S TIP:
Don’t waste your efforts and words, your darlings.
Cut and paste them into a folder you can dip into later when you need a bit of inspiration. They may just appear in your next big project!
So don’t think of killing them, just sending them on a holiday until they feel ready to get back to work.
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