Why every writer should ‘kill their darlings’
A phrase I love when it comes to writing is ‘kill your darlings’. I first read about this technique in the amazing On Writing by Stephen King, but I believe it originates with William Faulkner, American novelist and Nobel laureate.
Kill your darlings doesn’t mean murdering your loved ones. It refers to removing words from a sentence or paragraph to improve clarity and get the message across. The ‘darlings’ part is about having the courage to strike out a word or phrase that we really love — because if it isn’t adding to the overall message or story, it’s not needed. It can also mean removing characters or side plots from a fiction story that don’t add to the main plot.
Fiction writers can often benefit from this the most. Removing unnecessary lines of dialogue, paring back adjectives, and making sure you’re taking a ‘show don’t tell’ approach can really tighten up your writing.
But the best writers who ruthlessly kill their darlings are journalists. Investigative reporters or feature writers are where you might see this in action. They understand the need to weave a tight, concise story that sticks to the facts and doesn’t deviate while retaining the reader’s attention.
You can see this best when you read a book (fiction or non-fiction) that a journalist has written. I recently read The Premonitions Bureau by Sam Knight and saw this first-hand. Knight is a staff writer for The New Yorker and covers everything from politician profiles to the NHS strike action. His portfolio is diverse and frankly enviable.
The Premonitions Bureau is a fantastic piece of writing that reads like a very long and detailed investigative feature. The book isn’t long, but it manages to tell the story of the Premonitions Bureau and its key players, while also bringing to light the huge social and healthcare reforms of the 1960s, as well as diving into psychotherapies and the history of precognition. You can feel Knight’s journalism background throughout, keeping the writing taut and on topic, even though a novel would normally offer the opportunity to be expansive. He kills his darlings at every opportunity.
You don’t need to be a journalist to write like one. Applying the principles that make journalistic writing great can benefit writers across all disciplines. That can include:
- Staying on topic. Don’t deviate unless you need to add essential context. If you can, just add a backlink (The Guardian is great at doing this).
- Review your writing with a critical eye. Don’t be soft on yourself because no one else will. If you read it and think it can be better, make it better.
- Keep your language to the point. Do you really need a metaphor there? Are you guilty of overusing adverbs? Cut them out and see the difference it can make it tightening your overall tone.
- Make yourself understood. Even if you’re writing for a technical audience or subject, don’t be drawn in by jargon or overly complicated language (I actually have a great example of this here if you want to see it in practice).
- Don’t add words for the sake of it. I see this so often with SEO content pieces that are far longer than they need to be because of the need to cram keywords in. If a piece can be 500 words, make it 500 words.
Practice makes perfect with writing, so why not look back at something you thought was just ‘okay’ and see if you can kill some darlings to make it into a great piece instead.
Want to see how I apply these tips in my work? Check out my portfolio here:
