Kill Your Darlings: Why Writers Must Let Go of Favorite Scenes to Improve Their Manuscripts

From Edie: Struggling to cut favorite scenes or passages? Our best blogger, Carol McClain helps writers learn why they must “kill their darlings,” trust feedback, and strengthen their manuscripts.

Kill Your Darlings: Why Writers Must Let Go of Favorite Scenes to Improve Their Manuscripts

by Carol McClain @Carol_McClain 

Oh, If only I believed the truth of the title of this article, I’d be a New York Times best seller by now (or in my dreams). Trust your advisors, editors, and your purpose for your work. Trust your gut.

One example will illustrate what I mean.

My newest work, Choices We Make, features a minor character—my protagonist’s neighbor. Leah is kind, generous, and exceptionally lonely. If her husband understood her problem, maybe her marriage could survive

If you read my first versions of her character, you would never have rooted for her. Or for my main character.

But I wrote her characterization in my sacred first draft.

In my personal life, I cringe at the overuse of cosmetic enhancements. I also write a lot of humor. Thus, in my novel, Leah overdid her beauty treatments. She wore fake eyelashes resembling tarantulas on her eyelids. Heavy lip collagen made her look like a fat-lipped fish. I gave the whole, hysterical enchilada.

The end result—Leah resembled an unsympathetic bimbo.

My protagonist who mirrored my thoughts appeared to be a judgmental woman. Not a woman people wanted to root for.

Second draft. I toned Leah down.

Third draft—toned some more.

Fourth—all awful cosmetics gone.

Fifth, sixth, add infinity—Leah became a very pretty, lonely, mid-aged woman whom you will love.

Kill Your Darlings

"Kill your darlings, kill your darlings, even when it breaks your egocentric little scribbler's heart, kill your darlings." Steven King 

Yes, indeed, you worked hard on your manuscript. Maybe you refined the work, expanded, showed more and told less—good job.

Yes, God probably inspired your thoughts. However, you are not a gospel writer, and we hear from God imperfectly. If he’s the inspiration, he will guide you through revisions. After all, we didn’t become the perfect people we are today the moment we accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior.

Listen to your editor/critique partners

More times than I can remember, a critique partner or an editor said of a scene, this “darling” isn’t working. I raged. Of course it’s great. I wrote the thing. However, the good part of computers—you don’t have to throw your work in the trash. I took my darling—the words, the chapter(s), the concept that would garner me a Christy award and stored the file on my computer. Once I proved my ideas right, I could reinsert the gem.

Never once have I used the rejects.

The Bible tells us there’s safety in the multitude of counselors. Listen to them.

The 5 Rs and 1W of Writing

I taught ELA, AP Composition, and Journalism for years. Back then, I nagged my students to remember the five Rs and one W of writing: rewrite, rewrite, rewrite, rewrite, rewrite, write.

If only I listened to myself.

Don’t fall in love with your brilliance. Rework, revise, and rejoice in the beautiful novel or devotion, or inspirational work you created. Remember, God made us co-creators with him. However, we are not God.

TWEETABLE 

Kill Your Darlings: Why Writers Must Let Go of Favorite Scenes to Improve Their Manuscripts from @Carol_McClain on @EdieMelson (Click to Tweet)

Carol McClain is the author of seven published novels. She loves God, glass, good books, and goats—especially when they’re not eating her manuscript.

McClain also edits, teaches Bible studies, hikes the Smokies, and pursues many other interests that allow her to avoid housecleaning. Why make a bed when you’re only going to mess it up again?

When she’s not writing stories filled with people making spectacularly messy choices, she’s wrangling goats or chasing shiny bits of stained glass.

Discover more about Choices We Make and sign up for her newsletter at carolmcclain.com