in this episode we're gonna talk about that old writing cliche: kill your
darlings, and when I say Kill Your Darlings, I don't mean the Daniel
Radcliffe movie about Allen Ginsberg. Never heard of it. Identify our darlings
and then decide if we wanna kill or save them and if we choose to kill them what
are we gonna do with the dead body stay tuned kill your darlings kill your
darlings even if it breaks your egocentric little scribblers heart kill
your darlings Stephen King welcome to another episode of the other epic story
this is the show where I offer a little tip about how to improve your writing
and then I try to apply it to my own piece of work which is an epic fantasy
trilogy today we're gonna talk about the old cliche kill your darlings what does
that even mean when you're writing you're gonna create some awesome stuff
at least in your opinion the thing is what you write may not always fit into
the story properly what ends up happening is it becomes disjointed or
it's not relevant to the actual plot you add characters that you love but doesn't
serve a purpose in moving the story forward
those are your darlings and they deserve to die it's not that it's a bad piece of
writing it might be brilliant but it might be a distraction it might not move
the story forward and it just might not fit those are described as your darlings
kill your darling is an old cliche about cutting irrelevant content from your
work so I did some research from a website called well - story calm it's
actually full of a lot of good resources if you're looking for any of that stuff
while you're writing recommend I'll attach a link in my description
so check them out anyways so according to them here are few things that you
should cut from your story even if they're your darlings
characters that don't serve a purpose yes you created this awesome character
Hey they might even spin-off to their own
novel but they do not fit in your plot for your current novel they deserve to
be cut so how do you find out if this character fits in your story or not well
look at all the scenes as characters in a TAS
do any of these scenes move the story forward even if it's full awesome
dialogue and clear description of this character is it helping the plot
progress if not ask your darling and you gotta kill it next you should cut a plot
line that doesn't reconnect with your main plot so when you're writing a story
there's bound to be side plots take lower the rings for example there's full
of side plots take Game of Thrones for example there's so many side plots but
what is important is that it has to reconnect with the main plot next
there's unnecessary backstory does knowing about how this character was
raised what they did in school is that important to the plot if it isn't it
might just be slowing your story down a prologue is a good example if the
prologue does not connect with the actual plot later on then it's
unnecessary backstory and you don't need it another thing you should cut
metaphors and similes if you find yourself using way too many metaphors
then you got to consider cutting them out even if they're really good if you
find yourself always describing trees such as a blossoming cloud of fireworks
or describing someone's face as the morning sunshine you really have to ask
yourself why each and every metaphor is in your story is it really helping to
paint the image of your character or you're just trying to flex your creative
muscle just like unnecessary backstory unnecessary scenes are also something
you should cut these are scenes where you don't give the story forward and
nothing new about the character you explained just remove the scene from a
story and see if it could still function romance yes we all love romance and
dirty sex scenes but are they helping us understand the characters a little bit
better or is it just fluff you know fanfiction stuff you're better than that
lastly you should reread your first chapter usually we're ready to start
writing they just dump their ideas on a page and that's usually the first
chapter that suffers the first chapter is usually full of meaningless backstory
that doesn't really influence the plot remove the first chapter and see if you
could start at the second one does it change the readers understanding of the
plot at all if it doesn't cut it that's what this exercise is all about so there
you have it those are a few things you want to cut from your story even if you
love it a lot so last episode I was working on my prologue and I must say I
don't love it that much it really isn't my darling I didn't spend that much time
on it I didn't put that much thought into it all I knew was that I had to set
the scene there's a few points I wanted to cover
technology is fun people are scattered apart but I still want a prologue I
think it'll really help set the scene for my story however I'm gonna do it a
little differently set the scene that is a key word I don't want exposition to
just dump ideas onto my reader I want them to get invested with a character
and a character in a prologue should not be the main character in your actual
plot this needs to happen in the past and I know exactly the part I want to
talk about so I'm not gonna talk about technology I'm not necessarily even talk
about how all the cities are scattered too far to travel I'm going to talk
about a key token in my story and that is a gun being the only person in your
city with a gun it's like being a superhero and with great power
very responsible exactly so I want to talk about this weapon that this
character has so one of the main characters in a story is this boy
sheriff his father has just passed away and he inherits the role as the city's
sheriff so he becomes a holder of the only gun so I want to talk about how
this role of a sheriff came about in this dystopian City so we're gonna go
back a few generations from this boy sheriff we're going to talk about his
great-great-grandfather so his great-great-grandfather discovers this
instruction on how to make a gun hidden away somewhere I haven't figured that
out yet but he discovers this so he Commission's a few members of the town
field skilled tradesmen and to create some gunpowder to create the components
of the weapon so while he's building this gun a old man like a wise old man
type of character will tell him that one of the reasons why different towns fell
apart was because people with guns started killing each other and in that
killing the strongest people died away so that's kind of like an antique gun
like we don't need weapons we could govern ourselves you're creating this
you're creating a dangerous thing he doesn't listen he decides to create it
anyways but the only one he's going to destroy the instructions to make more so
he only has this one gun people aren't that sparked in the city and they sort
of listen to him and he decides I'm not gonna become a ruler with this gun he's
gonna become a superhero he's gonna become a protector and just help those
people get back onto his feet so he becomes the sheriff so that's sort of
the idea for my prologue it gives a little backstory help establishes a key
item in the plot and it helps sort of give a little eye
of what life is like in these towns if you haven't seen my previous episode ooh
it is about my prologue I do a reading of it and what do you think is this new
idea a little bit better let me know in the comments once this is written I'm
gonna go back and see if it's any better I really think it is
I really think so tune in next time as I offer more tips and tricks and work my
way through this epic novel of mine alright keep writing