Know (and Kill) your Darlings

“Darling, I love you, all of you, faults and all, even though nobody understands us, I… love you.”

Ah, the toxic bond between writers and odd, little, literary hills they choose to die on. Every single writer and author on this planet has darlings. These darlings make them dazzle in their writerly brilliance, basking in the glorious light of their word-choices.

The editor then enters the room, armed to the gills with literary ammunition.

“I cannot let the darling ruin your work. It dies, today. Kill it - kill your darling, now.”

Kill it. Murder it. Suffocate it. Put it in a diabetic coma. Blow it up. Redirect it. Shoot it.

Experienced authors have called the darling and its demise many names. William Faulkner, Oscar Wilde, G. K. Chesterton, and Stephen King all have iterations of killing the darling. Let’s sample some advice. In the words of Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch,

Before we kill this darling though, we need to know what it is, who it is, where it is, and how it is disguised. Let’s know and kill our darling, shall we?

What is a Darling?

Darlings are words, characters, locations, plot-lines, sentences, narratives, rhetorics and researches you absolutely love. These words beckon you, trap you in their sinister web and kill your book’s vibe for your readers. These words make 100% sense to you but to the reader, they are unnecessary and distracting.

The darling becomes a darling because you worked hard on it (creatively). It is so creative, it doesn’t fit into your overall story. It takes readers away from your story. It is where many books are DNF-ed (did-not-finish).

How to Kill Your Darlings?

Good writing often is rewriting. First drafts are rarely good. Most of your first draft will be rewritten. You will read what you wrote and cringe thinking, “I am such an extra edge-lord.”

If you are of a certain age, you probably don’t know what ‘extra’ or ‘edge lord’ means. They’d qualify as my darling because both of those words are colloquial Reddit and Tumblr terms used in writer communities. Instead, if I say, “I am so unnecessarily dramatic,” you’d understand me 100%.

To quote Stephen King,

Go through your work. Highlight and cut out all the unnecessary material. Put your attachment, pride and ego aside, and know that you have darlings in your draft. Kill them all.

Know Your Darlings

To kill the darling, you must locate it. This is difficult because the darling is an expert of disguise. Most of editing is eliminating the darlings. The most important thing to get right is making it understandable. If people don’t understand it, they won’t appreciate it.

How do you find the darling? You try these suggestions out.

Steps to Locate and Assassinate your Darling

1. Let it breathe

You get attachment issues when you don’t distance yourself from your draft. Leave it alone for a bit. Don’t read or re-read your draft till some time passes. I suggest at least 3 weeks. Then, go back to it. The distance will take you away from the darling. It will be easier to isolate the darling. You can then either explain it better or delete it.

2. Spot the redundancies

Some elements of your initial drafts would be useless. These are redundancies. Words, phrases, sentences, characters, sequences, et al. You either over-explained or exaggerated something within your chapters which simply doesn’t work. These are spots where your book is weak.

Look, your readers are smart. Trust them to figure certain things out without explaining things over and over again.

3. It is cute just for you

I am a writeroo - a writer who likes to hop around the literary landscape like a kangaroo. It is cute for social media but for a book, it is an absolute no-no. We call this purple prose. It is purple because you suffocated it in the name of your voice.

Avoid the flashy stuff if it doesn’t make sense for the plot. Sounding pretty is overrated. Precision is key.

4. Eliminate unnecessary plot

Subplots are important but if your book is littered with unnecessary subplots, your readers will lose interest in the main plot.

Plot twists are great literary devices. If you keep twisting the plot over and over again, your readers will be distracted. They will find it hard to follow through.

Streamline your plot. Add subplots that make sense and use plot twists when necessary.

5. Combine and Conquer

Too many characters and locations can get confusing for the readers. Instead of making it difficult to remember all the names and places, combine some of the characters and locations to create a narrative function. The rules to follow:

1. The characters and locations must advance the plot.

2. Each character and location must have a clear purpose and POV (point-of-view) to help the reader understand what’s going on.

6. Store or Redirect your Darling

Some things are difficult to edit out. A darling can also be a standalone idea.

Try this - change the placement of the darling. Instead of deleting it, use it in a sequel or some other chapter. Write a short story or an entirely different book based on your darling. It doesn’t make sense for plot A but it would make perfect sense for Plot B.

7. Get Feedback (and hire an Editor)

Join writing communities. Network with active readers. Get your draft beta/alpha read. Gather feedback. If a lot of people are expressing confusion regarding something - that’s a darling. Use others to identify your darlings. If your budget allows you, hire an editor or at least get your book audited.