Killing Your Darlings

Remember way back in the day when I wrote this post about How to Make Targeted and Smart Revisions?

Well... I do...

Especially since many of you have come to me asking for a more in-depth post about point #1: Big Picture Cuts and Additions

Every story is different, so it can be really difficult to identify which elements of your script to kill and which to keep (or bring back from the dead!)

In this post, I'll go over my guidelines for killing your darlings, and how to know you're making the best decisions for your story.

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Give it Time

After writing your first draft, your excitement and pride in your work will leave you with clouded judgement for a while.

So for the first week, or even first month, after completing your story, don't think about what to change.

DON'T THINK ABOUT IT!!!!

...

HEY! What did I just say not to do?

Yeah, I know you're thinking about it.

Trying to rationalize why you absolutely need that extra long monologue your supporting character says in the middle of the story's climax.

Trying to convince yourself it's totally fine your first act break is closer to the end of your script than it is to the beginning.

Scrutinizing every word to find ways to trim 10 pages off your 20-page script that probably should've just been expanded into a feature anyway and you don't know why you tried compacting it into such a limited format (guilty!)

Let it breathe, clear your mind, live your life... And come back to it.

You will almost certainly find that, after some time, the ideas you were so committed to keeping may actually not be the best way to tell your story.

Or, you may have an epiphany about something you couldn't quite figure out while writing your first full draft.

Giving your brain some time to focus on other things actually frees your mind up to generate new, creative ideas!

This is the most important thing you can do when you've written a draft of your story: take time away from it.

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Identifying the Darlings

You know that one idea you refuse to get rid of despite all the advice you get and natural instinct you feel telling you to cut it?

Yeah.............. That's a darling 💅

Some of us have more darlings, some of us have less. Some of us will kill them with ease, some of us will kill YOU with ease for suggesting we kill a darling...

But no matter how attached and/or aggressive you are with your material, if you're a creative person, you know it's always painful to kill an idea you were once passionate about. Even when you know it's for the best!

But here's the thing: your loyalty to a specific idea can set you further back than if you had just let it go. 

Let's take my own writing for example.

When I wrote my short film script, I was committed to the idea of finishing a feature screenplay in just 5 days.

I was so loyal to this idea, I essentially wasted a full day plotting out the specifics of what the feature version of this story would look like, only to start writing the actual draft and realize pretty quickly I wouldn't be able to finish it within the timeline I was allowing myself.

Then I had to backtrack and condense the outline into a short film outline (where I had to kill a ton of darlings!).

As I was writing the short draft, I had to keep stopping myself from fleshing things out further like I had originally planned.

When I finished writing the draft in just 5 days like I had set out to do, I was too exhausted from it all to even want to try writing the feature version.

Although I was satisfied with how my draft turned out, had I just decided to kill the "quick timeline" darling or the "feature script" darling, I would've been more on track to writing the short film version of the story sooner, and had more time to tweak it like I wanted.

I knew deep down that writing a feature up to my own standards would be likely impossible to do in 5 days, especially when starting with no ideas at all. Despite this, I wanted to challenge myself.

When you feel like you absolutely HAVE to do something, despite all logic and feedback, that's a clear sign you've got a darling that needs to be killed. ;)

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KILLING THE DARLINGS!

My tactic for killing darlings may actually be considered psychopathic behavior.

It's quite extreme; definitely not for those who are more attached to their ideas. So if this doesn't resonate with you, there's likely a less intense version of this that can work for your creative process!

When my darlings aren't immediately obvious to me, or I'm looking at my script and I know it's not to my liking, I choose an impossibly low page count I must reach, then cut elements of my story one after another to get there.

Like I said, it's a little psychopathic.

Or maybe a lot.

Either way, I'm used to it. 💅

Oh, your feature script is 118 pages? Get it down to 90.

Your half-hour pilot is 30 pages? Make it 20.

Short film script is 15 pages? Nah it's 7 pages now.

1-page script? How about no words, just vibes. 😎

I've always found this method leads me right to the areas that can be cut. Because once I decide that page count I have to hit, I immediately discover the needs and wants of the story.

No, not those needs and wants. You should definitely already know your characters' wants and needs by this point. If you don't... Go take a lap. Take several laps! You know better than to think about revisions when your characters don't even have clearly defined wants and needs!!!

I'm talking about the actual NEEDS and WANTS of your story itself.

A story NEED is what absolutely must be shown in order for your plot to make sense. This would be something like the beat that serves as a starting point / inciting incident for the rest of the plot. We definitely need to know how your protagonist's journey begins!

A story WANT is what gives your material extra flavor. This would be something like that funny joke your protagonist says that takes a full page to properly set up. You may not need it, but you think it definitely pays off. ;)

Sometimes a story want can disguise itself as a story need, and vice versa! That's why I use the page-count tactic -- to show me clearly what is a want and what is a need.

If you use my crazy page-count method, you'll either:

• do a bunch of teeny tiny cuts throughout your script that equate to a draft that's one singular page shorter but still has everything you originally wrote in it

or:

• cut everything in sight until you have a draft entirely devoid of heart and personality, but is equal to or less than your page count goal

When I first started writing, I was more like the former. I would fight for all my story points until my last breath.

Now, with a lot of my first drafts, I'll get feedback to expand on an element of the story that I had previously fleshed out but then removed because I thought having a lower page count was better.

It isn't always worth diminishing those unique qualities in favor of falling in line with "the rules." (Life lesson alert? 🚨)

Although it's difficult for me to get out of the intense cutting phase when I'm in it, I'm usually able to tell as soon as I read my revised draft exactly what it is that's missing.

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"Bring Back My Darlings!"

Did you read that in RuPaul's voice? If not, read it again.

How do you ensure your revised draft still has that magic of your original idea?

It starts with the first draft.

You have to allow your first draft to cover ALL ground, going as in-depth or on-the-nose as your heart desires.

Having the freedom to write badly gives you the freedom to unlock new ideas you would've never considered had you strictly been trying to stay within certain guidelines.

No matter how cringey this draft turns out, don't delete it. NEVER DELETE IT! This first draft provides you with, in your own words, the true intention of your story.

Does it always end up coming across exactly how you want it?

Haha. I wish!

What it does do is clearly show you the foundations of your story, which is always great to look back on when you start to lose sight of your idea.

It also provides a home for all your darlings, so you never really have to kill them ;)

Once I have the crappy first draft out of the way, what I tend to do is read it from beginning to end and freak the f out.

I start questioning why I ever thought I could be a writer. I apply to computer science degree programs so I can switch careers. I change my name and flee the country, never to be seen again!

When the shock wears off, I see the draft for what it is.

A rough representation of the story I want to tell.

Once I've accepted that, I head into revision mode -- a.k.a. my crazy page-count method.

What I'm left with is a first draft that's too cheesy for me to want to look at, and a second draft that's tight but missing everything about the story I liked.

I then compare the hefty draft and lean draft while writing the next draft to get something somewhere in the middle.

Comparing the two VERY different drafts of the same story shows me clearly which darlings I need to bring back from the dead, and which darlings are not worth the additional page count.

Things you should probably avoid cutting are:

• character-defining moments

• crucial world-building or plot point explanations (but usually.... these can be trimmed)

• things YOU truly cant live without

That last one is the most important. It is your story after all ;)

If you're considering cutting something that falls into one of those categories, it's most likely that it just needs to be streamlined or slimmed down.

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Now that you've learned how to kill your darlings, you're well on your way to becoming a mass murderer!

What other topics do you want to see in future blog posts?

Comment down below!