{"id":525,"date":"2014-01-30T11:59:59","date_gmt":"2014-01-30T17:59:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/oneyearnovel.wpengine.com\/?p=525"},"modified":"2021-09-11T01:50:06","modified_gmt":"2021-09-11T06:50:06","slug":"when-something-you-love-has-to-go","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/clearwaterpress.com\/oneyearnovel\/blog\/when-something-you-love-has-to-go\/","title":{"rendered":"When Something You Love Has to Go"},"content":{"rendered":"

Guest post by Justin Ferguson<\/em><\/p>\n

We asked Justin, veteran student with The One Year Adventure Novel<\/a>, about his novel-editing process. Below, Justin shares about the difficult moments when we have to edit against our emotions.<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\u201cKilling Your Darlings\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

I tend to get a little too fond of my characters. In and of itself this isn\u2019t such a bad thing\u2014it\u2019s hardly the worst that could happen\u2014but here’s how it often plays out in my stories: I end up with thousands upon thousands of words devoted to characters sitting around and \u201chaving a chat\u201d<\/strong> at various points in the plot.<\/p>\n

Nothing actually happens in these conversations: the plot doesn\u2019t move forward, the characters don\u2019t develop much, and the conversations aren\u2019t even that interesting<\/strong>\u2014except to me. Or rather, the characters involved interest me. I\u2019m the sort of person who likes to just sit and listen to other people talk, be they real or fictional. But none of this helps the story, and the result, of course, is bad pacing<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Because of this tendency I\u2019ve had to learn what might be called the reviser\u2019s motto: \u201cKill your darlings.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Unless you\u2019re new to the writing life, you\u2019ve probably heard this phrase before. It refers to chopping out those scenes, plot points, and even characters that you just love<\/em> but, if you\u2019re honest with yourself, don\u2019t serve the story<\/strong>. And that means they\u2019ve got to go<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

As writers, most of us know to be on guard against this natural weakness, but how do we go about killing our darlings?<\/strong> Whether you\u2019re like me and tend to write a lot of fluff, or you\u2019re a \u201cbare bones\u201d kind of writer whose rough draft is only the skeleton of your story, you need to figure this out.\u00a0And because this editing process applies to plot points and characters as well as to scenes, in the latter’s case those bones may not be as bare as you first thought<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Here are a few lessons I\u2019ve learned from experience<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

1. WAIT<\/strong><\/p>\n