The Story Behind the Story: part 5. EDIT/REWRITE. AKA: Murder!

 

Kill your darlings.

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Editing: writer's bane and blessing.

It's easy to fall in love with my words...after all, I dreamed the dream and then crafted the tale. They're my words, used to make the dream visible to others...I'd better love 'em!

Problem: more ain't always better..."But, let me make myself perfectly clear by adding that there are times when a judicious word here or there actually renders greater clarity..."

Hah! The author's patron saint needs to should be  is Les Izmore. The favorite surgical instrument the scalpel, not the suture and needle.

William Faulkner is credited with the quote, "In writing, you must kill all your darlings."

By that, he not only means characters whom you love but whose utility to the story line has long ago ended, but also those lovely turns of phrase that flow trippingly off the tongue, blessing the reader with alliterative or allusive attribution that demonstrate your wit, style, humor, and prowess with the pen. Ahem, keyboard.

[An even better ppgh: By that he means, get rid of no-longer-useful characters as well as extra words or pretty phrases. Ruthlessly.]

Now, I dearly wish Mr. Faulkner had taken his own advice--recently, I tried rereading something of his him...I so wanted yearned to take out the blue pen and strike out ten or twenty or forty percent of the verbiage. Felt like I was wading waist-deep. In molasses.

Not that every writer can or should be Hemingway: "Nick entered the woods. The day was warm. It was good."

That said--may Hemingway's spirit live on. Faulkner deserves highest grades for creativity, local color, and characters...but his editing? far from such a high grade.

In conclusion, ladies and gentlemen, write (paint, sculpt, sing, invent, create) a lot. Days or weeks later, delete all the crap and fluff. If you have anything left at all--huzzah!

Ah, good point. The critical part of our mind needs time to sift, filter, and assess. Going into editorial mode too quickly, we're more likely to mount a defensive action: "Nah, that's a good phrase, it builds the tension...not bad. I like it."

A week or two later, one might be able to say, "Wordy. Prune it a bit and rewrite. No--actually, just lop it right off."

Sorta like pruning a vine or fruit tree--if in doubt, cut it out.

In sum:
--creative, brilliant, insightful writing is half the battle;
--decisive, cold, and bold editing...that's the other, winning half of the battle!

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All that glitters is not gold.

(Wm. Shkspr. The Merchant of Venice.)