"
Whenever you feel an impulse to perpetrate a piece of exceptionally fine writing, obey it—whole-heartedly—and delete it before sending your manuscript to press. Murder your darlings." (1916) Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch (
source)
This isn't so bad because it is quite specific. In here the advice is obviously in reference to an attempt at writing something deliberately stylistic. (I immediately thought of King and Straub's opening to
Black House, which is curious considering what comes below.)
"
In writing, you must kill all your darlings." (
Goodreads version)
or “
In writing, you must kill your darlings.” (
UrbanDictionary version)
- William Faulkner (1919-1962)
What follows is not really having a go at William Faulkner, I don't have the full context for the quote, so let's give him the benefit of the doubt. I am having a go at the blithe use made of the quote on modern author-advice blogs.
The advice is trite and fatuous, even - perhaps especially - on a surface level. A literal interpretation (with regard to writing) of "kill all your darlings" tells me to go through my writing and find all the passages I like best and delete them. What rubbish!
This
link notes similar advice coming from to Hemingway and Stephen King, and interprets it as meaning "Stop writing for your ego, unless your ego's buying the book."
First, it's a little odd getting this advice from Stephen baseball-essay-in-my-short-story-collection King. (Hey, I like King, I really do, and since I'm not a baseball fan perhaps finding such an essay in a horror story collection could be deemed appropriate - aaahhhh! - sure scared the crap out of me.)
Second, "don't write for your ego" is good advice, so if that's what they mean why not say it? Advice should not be cryptic. Also, the chances are that if you're writing for your ego then killing all your darlings is not going to leave you with much - so just don't do that, okay?
"kill your darlings" is one of those phrases that should have been killed a long time ago.
The much better advice is almost as brief, if not quite so dramatic:
Do not play favourites
Expanded, that means: Review your favourite passages with the same dispassionate eye as you review the rest of your work. If you do that then there should be absolutely no reason single out your "darlings" for annihilation.
It is possible that writers will enjoy writing some passages so much they will get carried away and write more than they should. Such passages may be due more than average trimming, and these will be found if you don't play favourites.
But, equally, sometimes you especially like some of what you wrote because it works so well! Yes, by all means question whether it really does work - just as you would any other passage - but don't delete them just because you like them. Sheesh!