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Brick No89: Advice from Stephen King
By Matt Weston, Tuesday 10 August 2004 Today I want to steal a line from Stephen King . . . yes, that Stephen King, the man who penned Misery, The Shining, The Tommyknockers . . . honestly there's really no need to cower behind the sofa. Because the line I want to poach is one that King himself takes from Ernest Hemmingway, Mark Twain, and George Orwell before him (amongst others). And it's a line, not from one of King's many pulp horror novels, but from "On Writing", part-memoir, part instruction- manual for budding authors. The line? " Kill your darlings. " I promise in a minute you'll see the significance to your small business as clear as day, just bear with me. Kill your darlings Basically, when it comes to writing novels (or bricks for that matter) " Kill your darlings " just means you should edit out all of the passages you're keeping in because you love them too much. Take it away SK: " How long you let the first draft of your book rest - sort of like bread dough between kneadings - is entirely up to you, but I think it should be a minimum of six weeks . . . " If you've never done it before, you'll find reading your book over after a six-week layoff to be a strange, often exhilarating experience. " It's yours, you'll recognise it as yours, even be able to remember what tune was on the stereo when you wrote certain lines, and yet it will also be like reading the work of someone else, a soul-twin perhaps. " That is the way it should be, the reason you waited. It's always easier to kill someone else's darlings than it is your own. " Sound familiar? Yeah, that's right. " Kill your darlings " doesn't just apply to authors. It applies to anyone doing any job that involves creating some product or some service. And you guessed it: as a small business owner or start-up that means you. In your case your darling might be a logo font that nobody can actually read; a hip location for your shop that appeals more to your vanity than your sales; or even the clever, clever slogan you dreamt up but your customers don't really get. Back to King: " When a novelist is challenged on something he likes - one of his darlings - the first two words out of his mouth are almost always 'Yeah but'. " That's the acid test. Your darlings are those things that you do, make or say that - when challenged - you get on the defensive about . . . those things that you find yourself unable to justify in a detached, logical way. Kill your darlings. Remember to sign up: back to top |
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