Attention Writers! Please Refrain From Using the Phrase “Kill Your Darlings”
It’s Creepy. It’s Lazy. And I’m Tired of Reading It.
The phrase “in writing you must kill all your darlings” has been attributed to writer and Nobel prize laureate William Faulkner.
It means that writers must ruthlessly eliminate any words, characters, side plots or turns of phrase that we personally love but that do nothing for the story.
Is this good advice? You bet it is! Most published writing is, sadly, teeming with unkilled darlings.
And yet? I hate this phrase.
I am a Writing Coach. I help writers improve and publish their prose. Although the stories and essays and humor pieces and books I work on with my clients every day contain countless unkilled darlings, I absolutely refuse to utter this phrase.
I’ve worked with hundreds of writers over the past three decades and I’ve never once told any of them to kill a darling.
Why?
I don’t want to tell anyone to kill anything. Even if it’s just words and characters and phrases. Killing creeps me out.
Also? For advice about trimming your work, it’s oddly over-the-top. If a word isn’t necessary? Just erase it. No need to slaughter…
