It’s not easy being ruthless.
I get attached to the sentences I write. I develop soulful relationships with whole stanzas and passages during the process of their creation. If I hang on to them with the ferocity of a pitbull with a trouser cuff in its maw, it’s because I am loth to excise words I have brooded and slaved over and given birth to from the tortured recesses of my being. I like to keep them gathered to my bosom and tucked into my story or poem.
Until revision time.
I’d find my metamorphosis from maternal Hoarder of Words to demon Thresher From Hell amusing if it wasn’t so damn painful. Culling the grain from the chaff of my writing and going all Hashashin on the best pieces (or so I think) is like pulling fingernails with industrial strength pliers.
Usually the passages or verses I feel are particularly inspired or extraordinary writing on my part must be cut because I recognize that they can be self-indulgent and detract from the essence of a piece. Flown on ideas and words, I can craft writing that can be too clever, or cute, and clutter the text with unnecessary flourishes of style. After years of writing, I now know never to go with my first impulse of expression but continually weed out such passages and prune the writing to its simplest, tightest form.
I know many writers who understand this as necessary in the service of good writing but still get anxious when they approach this stage in revising drafts. Here are three tips to get away with ‘murdering your darlings’ without serious psychological trauma.
1 – Get Distance From Your Writing
Put your writing in a drawer and forget about it for a couple of weeks. Most of the time when we find it hard to cut parts we love but that don’t really belong in the piece is because we’re still emotionally entangled in the process of crafting the work. Distance gives objectivity. In order to come to your writing with a clinical eye, you need to put it away for a while. It makes the surgery easier.
Read more: Get Distance from Your Work
2 – Tune into Your Writer’s Instinct.
Some writers feel the bits they love about their writing are automatically bad writing and a good rule of thumb is to just knife out the parts they feel overly attached to. I beg to differ. Don’t cut it just because you love it. Cut it because it doesn’t belong in the piece you’ve written. Cut it because your piece reads well without it. And a good way to know this is to keep your writer’s instinct razor-sharp by reading widely and testing your hunches.
Read more: Writer’s Instinct
3 – Keep the Higher Goal in Mind
Every writer aims to put out quality work which can mean giving the axe to a beautifully written passage or stanza because it does not serve the piece. I find keeping that desired end result in mind helps me focus on doing whatever is necessary to make my writing strong. If that means taking the life of a stanza I spent months perfecting, so be it. It’s all in service to the writing.
Hope you find this useful. Until next time!
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