I love dramatic statements. It’s something like swearing in church. Or at least swearing when people aren’t used to you swearing.
I try to control my language as much as possible. Not because I feel I need to be polite all the time or because I fear any great risk for my afterlife or even for my reputation.
No, I refrain from swearing when I think to, because that way, when I do let fly with some expletive, people F*cking well believe that I am serious. (sorry, but you get my point, right?)
So the rather dramatic statement, “Murder your darlings” appeals to me because you realize at once that the statement means business.
But … what does it mean?
Well, some will tell you that it represents a method of editing where in you purge your writing of anything not truly relevant to the story line.
There’s no disagreement on my part that this is good advice. You may have spent long and agonizing hours on some scene to get it just right.
But two things come to mind, if it took that long to get it right, isn’t it a scene that is a bit contrived in the first place? And if it is contrived, is it really part of the story line?
I am the worst for inserting things into a tale that I think are interesting, only to realize later that, as interesting as they may be, they really aren’t needed in as far as the telling of your story is concerned.
Hence the slaughter
But there is yet another meaning attributed to the titular cliché. Many of us have verbal mannerisms, usually more present in speech than in writing, but still we let them leak onto the page.
And they truly are unblotted cerebral ink spatter, droplets of mental habit that have indeed leaked out onto our pages whether you write with Parker Pen or Underwood Typewriter or Logitech Keyboard.
And they also fit the other description of darlings in that they are not required to tell your tale with brevity or conciseness.
Take up your sword
While the pen, real or virtual, will always remain the mightier, the editor’s greatest weapon is still to cut away the unneeded words. And those o̶n̶e̶s̶ that slip out unbidden a̶n̶d̶ ̶f̶r̶o̶m̶ ̶h̶a̶b̶i̶t̶, are among the most insidious of unneeded words, the more so because their familiarity makes them seem invisible.
So in order to murder them, you must first learn to recognize them. And then, you must determine if you care.
But in truth, if you don’t care, you’re turning your back on good writing, and are therefore not really a writer in pursuit of success.
If that is not you
If you wish to be a success, then I urge you to do these following two things.
First, seek out your darlings, learn to recognize them, find them all and identify them as such.
And secondly, take them and your musket out behind the barn and … well, you know what to do. Go ahead. I won’t tell.
