Killing Your Darlings
Posted February 25th, 2008 by Howard TaylerWriting Excuses Episode 3 is up! It’s called “Killing Your Darlings,” and I’m having a listen to it right now. If you’re an aspiring novelist, or just want to learn to write better, it’s worth listening to. This is because Brandon and Dan really know what they’re talking about. I’m pretty sure I’m just the foil this time around…
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February 25th, 2008 at 2:53 pm
Very cool ‘cast. And very scary.
February 25th, 2008 at 9:44 pm
You guys helped me realize what had been keeping me from finishing one of my most popular stories on FanFiction.Net. I need to kill a character that just doesn’t work and then the a slightly different ending can make sense where the planned one was too complicated.
Ona
February 25th, 2008 at 11:22 pm
Note that by “kill” we didn’t necessarily mean “kill within the narrative.” Usually we just mean “cause to never have existed in the first place.”
Still, if killing is what makes the story work, grab something sharp and do the deed (in the narrative, please.)
February 26th, 2008 at 1:54 am
Deus Ex Machina, anyone? In junior high (long ago, before the oceans drank Atlantis; and the rise of the sons of Arias…) we had a creative thinking project to dream up an Invention (cap mine). Mine was the Black-Hole-Omatic. Ultrasmall mass singularity, selectable event horizon; all the Jetson’s bells and whistles. Just the thing for the neighbors dog using your lawn as their personal toilet, annoying children; etc.
February 26th, 2008 at 2:33 am
Wow. This time, instead of comments about getting the podcast to show up in iTunes, or the shirt you mentioned in “a completely unrelated note”, we have comments that are actually about the content of the episode!
I wrote some examples here of darlings that had to be killed, but the examples kinda sucked, so I deleted them.
…
That would be a clever joke if it wasn’t true.
February 26th, 2008 at 4:15 am
I have to say, I have been loving your podcast. As an aspiring writer, (yes, one more drip in a big bucket) the advice and insight has been fantastic. Please keep it up.
February 26th, 2008 at 12:50 pm
I mean kill as in edit out.
Ona