Killing your darlings

This month, as I’m working on polishing my manuscript in preparation for Pitch Wars, I wanted to talk about something all writers struggle with, and that’s being ruthless in the editing process.

Killing your darlings Lyndsey's Book Blog

What does it mean to kill your darlings?

We’ve all heard the phrase “kill your darlings”, whether you came across it while reading Stephen King’s On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, or you’ve seen it used in the online writing community. There’s even a film with Daniel Radcliffe as poet Allen Ginsberg, who has been attributed (amongst many others) with inventing the saying, called (of course) Kill Your Darlings.

The basic message is that, during the editing process, writers should cut their favourite and most self-indulgent passages for the betterment of their manuscript. It’s a tough and painful lesson all writers learn when they come to revision time. First drafts are almost never good enough for publication, and even the most famous authors rewrote their works several times before sharing them with the world. Take a look at this post, How many drafts does it take to finish a novel? to see how many times some authors rewrite!

A bit of background…

For those of you who might not know, I finished my first novel recently and plan to submit it to Pitch Wars next month. I wrote most of the first draft during NaNoWriMo 2016, and finished draft two in May. Since then, it’s been out with several beta readers who all really liked the story and gave me a few comments and suggestions which I’ve worked on incorporating into the text. (Check out my previous Author Toolbox post on the ABCs of beta readers).

My beta readers, however, are not fellow writers. They’re friends who love reading and who I trust to give me their honest opinion, but they aren’t familiar with the craft of writing.

Preparing for Pitch Wars

In the run up to Pitch Wars, a raffle was hosted by last year’s mentees – writers who got picked by the 2016 mentors – offering to work with this year’s hopefuls on their competition entry, which comprises the first ten pages of your manuscript and a query letter. I entered the raffle and was lucky enough to be chosen as one of the winners, meaning the amazing Kristen Clouthier would take a look at my pages and query and give me her expert opinion on what I could do to improve them, and therefore increase my chances of getting chosen by a mentor next month.

I pinged off my pages and waited patiently (lies, I was so nervous and anxious!) for Kristen’s reply and her suggested edits. She replied really quickly with a few questions to give her a better idea of my MS and a couple of thoughts she’d had whilst reading. Her advice was to cut the opening scenes and start the story later, as I had started it too early and the inciting incident was several chapters in. She was absolutely right and I think I’d known that all along, having worried my beta readers would find the start boring (it’s a fantasy novel with no fantastical elements for several chapters, what was I thinking?).

Kristen recommended I cut everything up until the action really starts, and then send her my new first ten pages so she could critique those instead. I set about chopping a good 8k words off the beginning of my book, and do you know what? It didn’t even hurt. If that isn’t a sign that Kristen was completely right and my story started way too soon, then I don’t know what is. I polished up those opening pages, readding some of the important information from the cut segment, and sent them off. Kristen loved the new opening, and even though it still needs work and lots of spit and polish, we both agreed it was definitely the right place to start the story.

My dead darling

OK, I lied, one part did hurt, but I knew it was the right thing to do. Kristen said that she wouldn’t be surprised if someone down the road – a Pitch Wars mentor, or future agent – would ask me to cut the prologue. I wrote about my prologue here on my blog, you can even read the original, first draft version when you subscribe to my email list, and I discussed the pros and cons of prologues and reasons why they’re so controversial amongst writers and editors. That didn’t stop me writing it and including it in my manuscript. But, as Kristen said, it was really just a huge spoiler for everything that happens later in the book, so I knew that, with the new beginning being more action packed and gripping, it had to go.

The five stages of loss

So, I killed my darling, I cut my prologue. I saved a copy of my original MS so I can keep it for posterity, and to see how far it has come by the time it gets published, and maybe that took the sting out of removing the prologue and first three chapters. I didn’t delete them and send them into the void, I can still refer to them and use snippets here and there throughout the rest of my MS.

If your manuscript is finished and you’re ready to start the revision process, here are five steps to killing your darlings:

Give your writing to beta readers. You can reread your work yourself, but the bits that need to go tend to be the writer’s favourites. When your betas tell you something didn’t work for them, or it felt clunky and unclear, believe them.
Cut the word/phrase/passage and paste it into a new document, or wherever you keep snippets for yourself. Don’t just hit delete and erase it forever, you never know when you might be able to reuse at least some part of your cut segment.
You now need to fill the gaping hole you’ve created. This will probably either be with a completely reworded version of the original, or a sentence or two that smoothly transitions the reader into the next part of the story. Read the couple of pages before your MS’s new hole to immerse yourself in that part of the story.
Write. Don’t worry that you might not be able to come up with something as brilliant as your dead darling, all of your words come out of the same person, good or bad, and you will write wonderful words again.
Go back to step 1, give the new version to your beta readers and see if they prefer it. If they’re happy, you’re good to go.

Writing is a very personal experience, but ultimately your writing needs to be aimed at your readers and not just an exercise in self-indulgence. That’s what diaries are for. Be brave and ruthless in your editing, and try not to take it personally when readers don’t connect with your favourite passages. Kill all your darlings, and your novel will be the better for it, I promise.

Lyndsey

Pitch Wars #pimpmybio

Hi guys! I’m entering Pitch Wars next month, which – for those of you who don’t know – is a competition where you submit your polished manuscript to up to four potential mentors, and if you’re chosen you get to work with a mentor for two months to perfect your manuscript and pitch for the agent round in November.

I’ve also entered #MenteesHelpingMentees, which is a pre-Pitch Wars raffle to win a query and first 10 pages edit by a past mentee. Wish me luck! (Update: I got picked!! The fabulous Kristen Clouthier read my query and first ten pages and gave me some amazing feedback, thank you so much Kristen!)

As part of the whole Pitch Wars event, Lana Pattinson has created the #pimpmybio blog hop, where participants share their bio and a brief summary of their WIP and both mentors and potential mentees can hop around and get to know everyone. From what I’ve seen, the biggest benefit of Pitch Wars is the community and the friendships that are formed, so I wanted to take part and hopefully make some new writer friends!

About my WIP

Seventeen year old Aria Colling is a changeling. She’s the daughter of a king from the Fair Realm who hid her in the Human Realm as a baby to protect her from the wrath of her uncle, the evil Celeste King.

Weeks before her eighteenth birthday, she’s kidnapped by a group of Fair soldiers and taken on a long and perilous journey to the kingdom of her birth, where she must take the throne when her ailing father dies.

Along the way, she discovers the poverty and war the Fair have suffered for over a century, and soon realises that she may be the only one with the power to defeat her uncle and his army of dark creatures. If she isn’t betrayed by those she has come to think of as friends first.

THE FAIR QUEEN is a YA portal fantasy for fans of THE QUEEN OF THE TEARLING and THE REMNANT CHRONICLES.

I completed the first draft in January and it’s been through several rounds of edits and beta reads to make it the best it can be! It’s my first novel so I’m looking for a mentor who can teach me everything they know about editing and getting my MS and pitch ready to query. I love NaNoWriMo and work best with strict timelines and targets. Most of all I’m really excited to learn and improve my manuscript any way possible!

About me

I studied Modern Languages at uni, including European Literature, and I’ve been working in marketing for the last five years.

Aged ten, I wrote a poem inspired by Roald Dahl’s Revolting Rhymes about Red Riding Hood, which the Ofsted inspector loved and took a copy to show round other local primary schools, so I’ve always been a creative writer.

I love having a project on the go at all times and I’ve had lots of different hobbies. I used to have an Etsy store where I sold my vintage teacup candles and Scrabble art, I also taught myself paper cutting and make presents for my friends and family.

I live in Lincolnshire, England with my military husband and our pointer puppy, Bailey, and when I’m not marketing, writing or reading I like to craft, cook and binge watch the latest Netflix craze.

I’m a huge YA fantasy fan, some of my favourite authors are Maggie Stiefvater, Leigh Bardugo, Cassandra Clare and Sarah J. Maas. I’m also an enormous Harry Potter fan, and can’t believe I have tickets to the Cursed Child play in December!

OK, that’s enough about me. If you’re taking part in Pitch Wars give me a wave in the comments and I’ll catch you on Twitter!

Lyndsey

Comparison is the thief of joy

Today, I wanted to talk about something all creatives struggle with at some point in our lives and careers – comparing ourselves to others.

As writers, it’s easy to pick up a book by a published author and compare our writing to theirs, usually finding ourselves inferior – we are our own worst critics. It can be even more discouraging if we read a book in our particular genre and see similarities in the plot, characters or world-building.

Many famous authors avoid reading within their genre whilst writing for exactly this reason. Not only does it prevent them from comparing themselves to others, but it lowers the risk of unconsciously borrowing from their fellow writer’s story.

The thing we often forget is that every author’s journey is different, and we are all at different points in that journey. You can’t compare your saggy middle to someone else’s happy ending.

Is it fair to compare a relatively new writer’s work to that of the greats, like Tolkein or Austen? Of course not. But we do it to ourselves all the time, expecting our abilities to be far more advanced than they have reason to be. Would you do that to a good friend? No? Then don’t do it to yourself!

So, how do we quiet that voice of doubt in our own minds? How do we prevent ourselves from constantly comparing our work to others’ and only seeing the negatives?

No one is you, and that is your super power

The thing to remember is that we are all unique, and our voices and our stories are unique because we are. Even if a story has been told a million times, it hasn’t been told by you, with your voice and experience shaping it.

There is nothing new or original in this world, everything is either an updated version of something else, a slightly changed and modernised adaptation, or takes inspiration from several different sources. We make our stories fresh by finding new ways to tell them.

Every writer’s process is different. Are you a plotter or a pantser? Do you create your characters or your plot first? Do you write in the morning? At night? With music? In complete silence? Prefer tea or coffee?

What works for one writer doesn’t necessarily work for everyone, so remember to take all advice with a pinch of salt. And a slice of lime. Read craft books and writing blogs, and take the tips you like, leave the rest.

Remember that every author’s journey is distinct, whether they are published traditionally or they self-publish. It takes some writers years and hundreds upon hundreds of submissions and queries before they sign with an agent and publish their first book. Others receive offers of representation within weeks. It’s part luck, part networking and four parts hard work.

So, next time you find yourself reading a great book and wishing you could create such vivid worlds filled with vibrant characters, just remember that someone else will read your work one day and feel the exact same way. There is room for all of us in the literary world, and more than that, someone out there needs your book. You are someone’s favourite author, they just don’t know it yet. So, write your stories, share your creations, and remember that the only writer you should compare yourself to is the writer you were yesterday.

Can’t resist comparing? Need a little self-esteem boost? Try this. Paste your current WIP into I Write Like and find out which famous author’s style yours most resembles. Make comparison your friend, not your enemy. (I write like Agatha Christie apparently!)

Until next time, writer friends!

Lyndsey