Oof. What a week. I can't believe I missed the Thursday post. That's on me, fam. Don't worry, I'll have something special to make up for it this week.
Today, however, I had to share some incredible advice.
I am partial to the note: Kill Your Darlings. The general idea is that, as you go into the editing process for your current work (my favorite/least favorite part of the job at the same time), you will encounter passages that you love.
The writing is profound, the characters are buoyant, and the descriptions are lush. It will hurt you physically to NOT share that passage with your audience. And you must.
Mostly because you find something that doesn't move the story forward. Sometimes because you need to cut 2000 words, and they have to come from somewhere. Hence, Kill Your Darlings.
But Chuck Wendig has another take. A wiser take. And so, I hand off to a master of the craft.
The Opposite of Kill Your Darlings