"You'll Have to Murder Your Darlings"
A tip for overcoming the first great hurdle in writing:
getting started.
I am an ex-freelance writer, current copywriter and always
creative writer at heart. When I was studying creative nonfiction as an
undergrad at The Ohio State University, I had the privilege of learning from an
outstanding professor. This individual has been nominated as a Pulitzer Prize
finalist for his latest work of fiction. In addition to the well deserved
accolades this individual has received for writing, this professor is a
tremendous teacher and writing coach.
This professor shared with me a piece of advice that has
stuck with me to this day and resurfaces every time I begin to write a new
piece: for work or for leisure, poetry or prose. This advice follows closely
with the advice of celebrated poet and essayist Annie Dillard: her famous
advice to "tear up the runway."
This advice applies to writing of any kind: writing copy for
advertising and marketing, writing an email explaining a report or data
presentation, pitching a reporter for a story, or even composing a corporate
email. The universal appeal of this advice is due to the fact that all writing
must start somewhere.
Nearly all writers will find a “runway” that gets a piece of
writing off the ground. The impetus which gets your work moving in a direction
can apply to something as ordinary as a blog post or as large as a novel. The
point is that, more often than not, this "runway" will take an author
to a place that he or she was not intending to go with their writing.
Dillard advises that it takes courage to write. Perhaps the
most courageous action that a writer can take is to tear up this runway. As
long as it navigated you to find that hook, that idea which got your creative
gears going, you should erase it from your mind and the page. You no longer
need it and it will take away from the real story; the “runway” merely served
as a way for you to get there.
This professor agrees with Dillard: to a point. I don’t
remember exactly what he said verbatim, so I will paraphrase. While this
individual also thinks that it takes courage to be a writer, they feel that
tearing up the runway is just one courageous act out of many that a writer will
have to make. A good runway which lifts you off to a great idea for a story or
a piece is a darling. You will find, as you write, that you will have many darlings:
these little parts of a piece that seem wonderful, intelligent and meaningful.
You will hover over these darlings for days, admiring them, wondering how you
were able to come up with something so clever.
But then you will have to murder your darlings, because
these darlings don’t belong in your piece. You may want to save them, after
they are dead, to bring them out some other day, for some other piece, but they
usually don’t fit. It takes courage to murder your darlings, but it takes
intelligence to understand when they don't belong.
This professor was a great influence on my development as a writer and I admire and respect them deeply. I agree so much with this notion. Often times I will write something that I think sounds a little wonderful, clever or unique. The more I try to shape it to fit in with what I am writing, the more I realize that I am actually shifting the entire focus of what I am writing to fit around this little darling. The sooner that it is dead and forgotten, the sooner I can get back to focusing on what I am really trying to accomplish with a piece of writing.
- Tommy Redmond
