{"id":983,"date":"2016-04-25T15:00:33","date_gmt":"2016-04-25T20:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/zachbarnesonwriting.wordpress.com\/?p=983"},"modified":"2016-04-25T15:00:33","modified_gmt":"2016-04-25T20:00:33","slug":"master-insights-stephen-king","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/2016\/04\/25\/master-insights-stephen-king\/","title":{"rendered":"Master Insights: Stephen King"},"content":{"rendered":"

Though the thought might have been borrowed\u00a0Arthur Quiller-Couch, Stephen King is famous for saying, “kill your darlings, kill your darlings, even when it breaks your egocentric little scribbler’s heart, kill your darlings.”<\/p>\n

While there is nothing to misinterpret (King\u00a0employs\u00a0the advanced literary technique called “repetition”<\/em> here, kids) I often struggle with this recommendation the most out of any advice I’ve ever internalized. \u00a0Well… other than the tip I\u00a0heard that said: “real writers don’t read advice,”\u00a0which has forever confused me.<\/p>\n

Just so that we’re on the same page, this recommendation applies to purple prose, flowery language, waxing poetic, whatever you want to call it. \u00a0Our darlings are those lines or, dare I say? even paragraphs of which we are immeasurably proud, because we believe they will eventually become pillars of literature. \u00a0It is these “pieces of exceptionally fine writing,” as Quiller-Couch calls them, that King so adamantly demands we murder.<\/p>\n

I have to say that when I first heard this piece of advice, I misapplied it. \u00a0What King is saying is not to avoid writing darlings, but rather to remove them from the final product. This is important because I believe that breathing life into those “darlings” is one of the best ways a writer can improve his craft. \u00a0It is also a good reminder of our times and why we do what we do. \u00a0What we writers seem to oft forget is that the most beautiful sentences-those pillars of literature-are often very simple, whereas “darlings” tend to be overwrought.<\/p>\n

All in all, I believe this to be good advice. \u00a0The one questions that I have, however, is if authors identify their most famous quotes as their “darlings,” and if so, what made them fit to save?<\/p>\n

In closing, here’s one first-draft darling, which walked solemnly to the guillotine some two years\u00a0ago. \u00a0I remember it sounding great when I wrote it, but a pillar of literature it is most definitely not:<\/p>\n

“Memory is a tricky thing. \u00a0This I was reminded as I memorized the tunnels and their cavorting contortions, attempting to emblazon the spectrally-glowing cavern into the deepest parts of my mind, so that the path hither would stand out in fiery regard above the miasmic trivia I had collected over the years.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I changed it to:<\/p>\n

“Memory is a tricky thing, mostly because it rebels when you need it most. \u00a0Even as I\u00a0committed\u00a0the path hence to memory, details began to slip\u00a0away.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Feel free to share your darlings, too!<\/p>\n

\"breathtaking_nature-wallpaper-1920x1080\"<\/p>\n

I\u2019m on facebook at:\u00a0https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/zachbarnesonwriting<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

And Twitter: @ZacharyBarnes4<\/span><\/p>\n

Like or follow me if you enjoy\u00a0the blog!<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2013<\/span><\/p>\n

Don\u2019t steal\u00a0my words. \u00a0They\u2019re mine. Zachary Barnes 2016\u00a9<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What King is saying is not to avoid writing darlings, but rather to remove them from the final product. This is important because I believe that breathing life into those “darlings” is one of the best ways a writer can improve his craft.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1062,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"amazonpipp_noncename":"","amazon-product-isactive":"","amazon-product-single-asin":"","amazon-product-content-location":"","amazon-product-content-hook-override":"","amazon-product-excerpt-hook-override":"","amazon-product-singular-only":"","amazon-product-amazon-desc":"","amazon-product-show-gallery":"","amazon-product-show-features":"","amazon-product-newwindow":"","amazon-product-show-list-price":"","amazon-product-show-used-price":"","amazon-product-show-saved-amt":"","amazon-product-timestamp":"","amazon-product-new-title":"","amazon-product-use-cartURL":"","amazon_featured_post_meta_key":"","_amazon_featured_alt":"","amazon-product-template":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[2,20,26,52],"tags":[59,60,61,81,88,112,180,200,204],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":157,"url":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/2015\/03\/10\/legit\/","url_meta":{"origin":983,"position":0},"title":"Legit","date":"March 10, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"I think that Stephen King is a good author-ly voice to heed. He certainly knows how it's done--he can buy all the groceries he wants, now! In fact, I think he's hit the nail on the head. The nail is the problem, of course. And King might have been defining\u2026","rel":"nofollow","context":"In \"Inspiration\"","img":{"src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":54,"url":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/2015\/01\/16\/rantasy-or-hi-fantasy-im-zach\/","url_meta":{"origin":983,"position":1},"title":"\"Rantasy\" or; Hi, Fantasy, I'm Zach","date":"January 16, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Place yourself in a writer's shoes, and you find yourself in an interesting situation. First of all, why'd you steal those shoes? Do they even fit you? Secondly, a person asks you \"what's your book about?\" the primary modus used to explain books is by genre. And that's where I\u2026","rel":"nofollow","context":"In \"Fantasy\"","img":{"src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":22,"url":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/2015\/01\/08\/review-of-scott-lynchs-lies\/","url_meta":{"origin":983,"position":2},"title":"Review of Scott Lynch's LIES","date":"January 8, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"The debut story of Locke Lamora is gripping and crammed with an intense gamut of emotion. Though the secondary world is vividly realized, the characters are what make this novel shine. The dialogue is sharply witty and every motivation fits its corresponding personality like a snug winter jacket. Sections of\u2026","rel":"nofollow","context":"In \"Book Reviews\"","img":{"src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/983"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=983"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/983\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}