Creative Writing: Kill Your Darlings

The process of learning to write requires that you create thousands upon thousands of words to tell a simple story. However, it is very tempting to include just about everything you write into your final story. One of the toughest challenges that a writer can face is to cut something that he or she is extremely proud of because it does not add to the story and can even become a liability. A phrase that has been repeated often within creative writing circles is, "Kill your darlings." This phrase has been commonly associated with William Faulkner but was actually first stated by Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch. The actual full statement was, "Whenever you feel an impulse to perpetrate a piece of exceptionally fine writing, obey it -wholeheartedly-and delete it before sending your manuscripts to press. Murder your darlings."

This basically means that even though you absolutely love the passage, phrase, scene, or even entire section of your writing, if it doesn't move the story forward or add to the overall theme and plot of your story, then it needs to hit the cutting room floor when you edit or before you even start filming. Stephen King also wrote in his book On Writing, "Kill your darlings, kill your darlings, even when it breaks your egocentric little scribbler's heart, kill your darlings."

This bit of advice is one of the most ignored pieces of advice for beginning writers. The reason why the phrase is kill your darlings is because, as a writer, you will fall in love with some characters, scenes, or ideas that you create and these scenes and ideas and characters can feel like your own children after a while. Writing is a solitary and lonely process. As a result, writers become more connected to the words they put on paper sometimes than the people who are in their lives.

When you begin writing scripts for your movies or films, make sure that you are willing to leave even the most profound statements out. When you refuse to cut out any passages or scenes that don't move your story forward, you are allowing your ego to become more important than the story you are trying to tell. When this happens, your audience will notice. When an audience notices the writer instead of the story, the impact of the film is diminished significantly.

Be willing to kill your darlings and you will produce more potent and powerful stories.