Thoughts about "Literally" Killing Your Darlings

My first thought?

Was: Good grief, is there no other best selling author in the whole wide world that people will listen to when it comes to writing advise? I'm just sick of him... but that's not really what you're asking is it? I don't throw anything out. Somewhere in that discarded story is something you can use, even if it haunts you to the point of rewriting. To have something to inspire you write... isn't a bad thing to keep around. =)

Who are we sick of?


Mine are all on my hard drive. Mayhap I'll go back and gut them (for the stories liked but couldn't do justice to then) The rest are a god reminder of how far I've come. Even if I never look at them I don't want to forget them.

D.Owczarek said:

I'm wondering if anyone else ever has the urge to permanently delete their old unpublished works - or do you save everything you've ever written, just in case?

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First time it all got deleted--and I mean all (15 years of writing archives)--was in the mid 1990's, when a careless computer tech formatted BOTH HDDs in my computer instead of just the book drive. I got the computer back and it was all gone.

I panicked--I went through all the print-outs, scrounged all the floppies and zip-discs, to pull together as much as possible again. I got maybe 60% of it back.

And after a few years, I realized that 40% I didn't recover--didn't matter. I didn't miss it. Nothing nagged at me. I didn't care.

So now I regularly (like every few years) go through my files and review what I've got. As I read through whatever's there, I look to see if the spark's still alive, if I get any new ideas, if I have any interest at all. If I do, I leave it. If I don't, I delete it.

When I complete a project, once it's published or I'm just finished with it, I do a full print-out, burn a CD of all relevant files and shelve it away. Then I delete everything off my computer and back-ups.

And, after a time, I often chuck out the CD if it's fallen out of the holder in the binder too much. The book is done, and I'm content.

Been doing this for about 20 years and it works good for me.

I'm a bit of a packrat, but I never delete anything if I can help it. I've had stories follow me for three computers now and I still have things written by hand from when I was 11 or so. I'm 26 now.

Even if it will never be published, I still like to go back and read my old stuff at times, warts and all. If nothing else, its a sign of how far I've come.

I keep my old stuff for reference, and for data-mining.

Sat Nam! (literally "Truth Name"--a Sikh greeting)

"Kill your darlings" is a darling that should be killed.

Keep your memoir. Your biographer will love you when you become a famous author.

Blessings,

Siri Kirpal, a memoirist

I never delete anything. My very first books (and every version of them) are still stored on the IBM 286 they were written on. At some point I will consolidate them all on one storage system, but I don't see any need to send them all into permanent oblivion.

If I were in your shoes, I might delete the memoir if I was concerned that it might be a problem if someone came across it at some point down the road and it contained things I'd rather not have someone read.

Delete never. Even if I never want to touch it again, its a part of me. I long for all the lost pieces I had from when I was younger. Each piece is a little look onto how I was feeling and what was most important to me. Even when I draft and cut things I keep every change. It's a compulsion of mine, but I can't let something disappear forever.

I keep all my old stuff so that when I feel bad about my writing, I can look back on it and think 'hey, at least I don't suck half as bad as I used to'.

All my old stuff is on a zip drive (yes, it's that old). And I'm keeping it just in case I get nostalgic.

A lot of my old stuff (I'm talking the years fro, 12-16) was lost because I kept it on floppy disks and the computer was rebuilt many many times. I'm not... glad, as such as there was some nice ideas in there. But the writing and characterisation was appalling, I kept trying to write sex even when I had only the faintest idea of how people actually did that, and it was basically all just overblown versions of all my favourite authors mashed up together.

I can still remember the seed ideas for the storys. I never got above 10k in those days, so if there's anything to be salvaged from it at all I can just restart.

But I wouldn;t delete anything from my rediscovery of writing - the last 3-5 years or so. A lot of it is clumsy and limping, a lot of it is cliche'd and poor, but a few small bits of it could be rebuilt. so no deleting.

Though it will be in my will that my heirs are to burn everything written before X date that wasn't published. If they attempt to sell it to a publisher, they get nothing.

There's nothing to lose in keeping the old stuff on file---it's not like you have shelves of mss. gathering dust on shelves. But even if you did, it's nice to go back now and then, if only to see how you've grown as a writer. Plus it's always possible you'll choose to rewrite the stories, using those new skills.

I think about it. My hard drives are groaning beneath the weight of all the stuff I just won't delete, even though I probably should.

And I've lost a few things through crashes that were never recovered and found that I didn't really miss them all that much. Or at all. Or even remembered them until one point later on down the road going 'I wonder what I did with...oh right...'.

Even so, I refuse to delete anything. :/

I always delete. It lets me feel better about how good the old stuff was If I could read it again, I might be a whole lot less sure.

I have written more songs than I can remember - and I have completely forgotten more than that. Those I do remember but I don't think are good enough are still kept in the form of notes and recordings; if I'm stuck for inspiration I'll go back and listen. It either reminds me how much I've improved since back then or gives me ideas for new stuff

In the back of my closet I still have notebooks filled with stories written in Jr HS and HS. Long before I ever owned, or even knew how to use, a computer. (Yes kids, there was such a time.) Your stories are a part of you. Even if there is zero chance they will ever see the light of day keep them for yourself.

The best way to feel the satisfaction of improvement is to revisit older works as not just a memory, but as a learning tool of what works, what doesn't work, and why in both cases.

When I look back and read my old stuff, I feel so embarrassed that I wrote such crap. But like everyone else says, it makes me feel glad that I've grown as a writer so that old work is a good reminder of that. I have some story ideas from junior high, high school and even college that I hope I can work with someday. Some have potential, others maybe not.

I keep things and mine them for rewrites.

That said, the fantasy novel I hand wrote hundreds of pages of? I threw that out.

I don't delete or throw away anything. I move things aside, put them far out of sight, but never delete. I never know when I'll be able to salvage something from them, when the characer I need is hiding away in a story written over a decade ago, or notes that never amounted to anything more than notes. Even stuff I published online I don't delete, because I may come back one day and find them removed from the site, or the site gone. Paranoia, maybe, but my first finished novel only exists because I salvaged the plot from one of those old works. I don't want to risk losing something good because I can't see the potential right now.

KellyAssauer said:

My first thought?

Was: Good grief, is there no other best selling author in the whole wide world that people will listen to when it comes to writing advise? I'm just sick of him...

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I think the thing is, there's no other bestselling author that offers quite so much writing advice in terms of volume and accessibility. King puts out a lot of advice, and he writes regular columns for big publications (often with writing advice) -- so his stuff is super accessible and easy to find.

I can't really think of many bestselling authors that have such a strong presence outside of their own blogs (Scalzi and Wendig, for example, blog regularly but don't really spread out much). Gaiman is a little more widespread -- but King is all over the place. It's hard to escape his advice.

But I'm sure if, say, J.K. Rowling were to start offering widely publicized writing advice, we'd fall all over it right away.

I never delete anything. I still have stories and poetry from when I was 10. It's nice to look back and see how much I've improved.

This isn't even what "kill your darlings" means is it? I'm still confused about what it means.