💘 TREE 757: No darlings were harmed in the making of this post
In a comment on yesterday’s post, E.L. Zeitgeist mentioned the popular advice to writers: ‘kill your darlings’.
Today I’ll tell you why I’m not a fan of that advice.
1. Violence
The idea that creativity means violence is at least as old as the Babylonian creation myth. The bible’s version of creation in Genesis 1 and 2 is a rebuttal of the Babylonian gore. But creativity = violence didn’t go away. Jump forward a few thousand years to Steven Pressfield’s The War of Art. It was an important book which helped me realise I could finish the things I started. Then Elizabeth Gilbert showed up with Big Magic and the good news that I could drop the war metaphor.
For me, creating is not a violent act; it is cooperating with who I am in a universe that is ideal for the making of new things.
2. Fundamentalism
The ‘radically saved’ Christianity that I had a lot of contact with in the 90s was big on the idea that you needed to sacrifice everything in your life to God, especially the stuff you liked. And if there was something you really loved, it was almost certainly ‘of the flesh’ so it definitely had to go on the fire. The effect, and in many cases the point, of this was to make you doubt your abilities, desires and intuition.
It took a lot of work to learn how to trust myself again. I don’t need Steven King et al telling me I should kill what I love. (If you have a different background, it might not feel like this at all.)
3. Drama
They’re not darlings. It’s not murder. It’s just editing. Be chill.
Cut the lines that don’t serve the story. Mute the instruments that don’t help the song. Remove the decoration that’s making your thing feel fussy. No need to get dramatic about it.
(You can save the bits you cut. They’ll probably be perfect for a different project.)
The irony will become apparent as the song progresses. What a performance though!
Grow slowly
Jeff
I love everything about this one today, Jeff! Nice!! Now admittedly, I do love horror with a slice of violence in my books and films, but it gives me the opportunity to flex my imagination muscles, explore the dark corners of my subconscious, and suck up the cobwebs that collect there. It kinda connects with the Christianity thing you mentioned but opposite: it’s perfectly ok to not be a sunshiny Pollyanna goodie two shoes… I’m allowed to think about evil too! (PS I was totally obsessed with Steven Pressfield when I was depressed and needed a drill sergeant to get me out of my hole. It worked! But then I didn’t need that violence anymore. Take what you need, when you need it, and then when you’re different, kill it 😈)