Killing Your Darlings

If you're a writer , you have probably heard the phrase, "sometimes you have to kill your darlings." I know the first time I heard that, I was confused to all kinds of new levels. In my head, I was asking, so I have to kill off my main characters in order to have a good book?

 i can assure you, that is not necessarily what is meant by this phrase.

Most commonly, this can refer to one of two things: killing a beloved character of having to if one of your favorite words, sentences, paragraphs, scenes, orchards from what you are writing.

The main question here is how do you know when it is the right time to "kill your darlings" and to that there is no one answer, but I will try to explore when you may be seeing the signs throughout this post.

Let's start with killing a character off. Many authors use this as a plot device to either move the story along or to see how their main characters will react to said death. It's a form of test, if you will, that requires these main characters to act once they accounting a tough situation.

This also will create a bond between the reader and the story becayse, depending on the reader, there will be an empathetic connection to the characters in mourning because the reader feels the same.

I will go through some examples in popular texts, so if you have not read one or more of them, skip that paragraph and I not feel offended. The series will be at the front of each paragraph.

Harry Potter uses death to make Harry's life both more complicated and something he has to fight for. It starts with making him an orphan and goes from there, killing people when the narrative calls for it. One of the most tragic deaths, for me at least, is Sirius Black. Harry had just gotten a family, had just gained a father (other than Arthur Weasley) and fitness ripped away from him. This act drives him to his searching that much harder for ways to destroy Voldemort and eventually learn about the horcruxes. His death was an important point in the plot to keep the story going. The same goes for all the deaths in the story. Fred shows everyone loses something in war. Dobby shows that innocents can die too.

Throne of Glass is another series where death spurs people into action. When Nehemiah dies, Celeana has to shake out of her comfortable bubble and act. Nehemiah also calls a revolution to arms. She sacrifices herself down the greater good to do what is best for her people. There are a lot of other deaths and near deaths, but this is the one that has been felt the most throughout the series.

Divergent is one series in which I feel the character death was not warranted. When Tris dies, there isn't much of a reason other than to show she would die for everyone. But that is already known. I felt like this, out of all my examples here, is one in which it did not work. Especially since the narrative continues after that for quite some time just to show that Four is affected by it.

Game of Thrones is one of those series where the characters are all expected to die. In a way, the genre calls for it because that is the style it set itself out to be from the very beginning. These character deaths do serve their own narrative reasons, as well. Jon Arryn, in a way, causes the war of the five kings. The suspected murder supposedly carried out by the Lannisters have the Starks quick to not trust them so Ned and Cat were looking for reasons to go after them. And that was just one death that happens in the first episode. This death will then lead to Ned being Hand of the king which then leads to his death and Rob's call to arms. Death, while inevitable, also serves a purpose.

Hunger Games has two deaths that are extremely impirtant : Tue and Prim. In a way, these two can be seen as the same character and are often compared to one another. Both cause fighting to ensue on their behalf. Both cause Katniss immense pain. Both are innocent and should not have died. But, both were necessary kills in the long term of the series.

So now let's move on to the second meaning behind this phrase: cutting your work up. This, for me, is almost harder than killing off a character because though they both have a good reason for being a necessity, sometimes it can be hard to give up on a sentence that you just love.

The reasons for doing this are just bout as varied as the things written in the world, so I'm just going to stick with the few i look for the most while I'm writing. I learned a lot of these while in was in creative writing classes in ollege, so I trust them and come back to the time and time again. So let's get started.

Let's say the writing just simply doesn't fit the work you have written. And to be completely honest, this happens a lot more than you would think.

It does nothing for the character, plot, description of the scenery, or really anything but the author's satisfaction. Sometimes, you have a phrase or a paragraph in your work that you just want in there because It sounds pretty or high brow. It usually does not fit in the writing style of the rest of the work and can be rooted out simply by reading that but aloud to yourself and hearing the difference in text.

It interrupts the narrative by acting like an author's note.This one is hard to swallow because sometimes, there is something you really want put into the narrative, but you don't know how, so you chalk it up to an authorial note and call it good. do not do this!! It will one hundred percent pull your reader out of the story and it will be difficult to get back in. Especially if it is extremely jarring. I know this because I have been known to do it on occasion, myself more than once. Whenever you catch yourself doing this, open up another word document and writing all you author notes in there to first off, get them out of your mind, and second, see if later, you can use them to help in editing.

Many times, when killing your darlings, it is because you have already stated what it is you are trying to say. I am especially bad at this because Duncan sometimes forget I already had something happen in the plot. To help with this, re-read your work! There is nothing better than doing this for your sanity, trust me. And try not to say the same things over and over just to get a higher word count. This isn't a college essay. (Just kidding, don't do it there either)

When you have too much filler explanation in your writing, you know you need to cut it. If you are describing things that are unneccesary, say the shade of each blade of grass, you are being over descriptive and should probably cut it out. If you find yourself adding things without having a reason to, you should cut it out. When in doubt, see if it is there for a reason. If not, you guessed it: cut it out.

I get it, guys, killing your darlings is gard. That's why it's called that. I have to get better at doing this , myself. So, if this has helped you rethink your writing in any way, come back to it from time to time to help you remember.

So, now I have some questions for you. What are your tips when having to kill your darlings? Is there any instance of reason I missed that you want known to the world? How do you feel with having to cut up your story? Any tips on how to make it less painful? Let me know in the comments below!

That's just about it for this pist. I hope you all enjoyed it!

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I'll catch you next Tuesday with an all new piat!

XOXO

Dana