Killing your darling

Harry Potter, Kill Bill, Spider-Verse, and Dune all embraced the two-parter. Photo-Illustration: Vulture A confession: I got Dune’d by Spider-Verse. Though I was semi-aware that this summer’s Across the Spider-Verse would be followed by a sequel, I was still taken aback when, just as the film seemed to be ramping up to its climactic showdown, it stopped in its tracks. The credits rolled, the lights went up. Drats! Another half-movie! It was the same unwelcome surprise that met Dune viewers who hadn’t caught the “Part One” in the title, unaware that the 2021 film only covered the first 50 percent of Frank Herbert’s novel. Both Dune: Part One and Across the Spider-Verse are part of a hallowed movie tradition: the two-parter. The practice has a spotty history, born sometimes out of creative necessity and more often out of simple greed. In recent years, a few key patterns have emerged. Here’s a taxonomy of all the different ways Hollywood sells you two tickets to one story. Parts two and three of a trilogy Back to the Future Part III (1990). Photo: Universal Pictures/Getty Images The modern practice of shooting a film and its sequel back-to-back kicked off in the 1970s, when producer The Three Musketeers and The Four Musketeers — a surprise to the actors, who thought they were only making one movie — then again on Superman and Superman II. A decade later, the Back to the Future sequels introduced the method most commonly used today. Call it the instant-trilogy strategy: You fo...

You have surely heard this advice: “Kill Your Darlings”. It might mean well, as its motivation is to help you remove unnecessary text. But there’s a crucial detail: Why on earth would “darlings”, text associated with something you like, actually be unnecessary? To be fair, I need to make a differentiation here. “Kill Your Darlings” means one thing in nonfictionand another in fiction. The dynamics are different, for reasons we’ll see in this post. But here is the sneak preview: Because “Darlings” is associated with something you like (we’ll see more details and definitions in a while), it refers to Though I will briefly speculate on what “Kill Your Darlings” may mean in nonfiction, most of the focus of the post will be on fiction. I’ll first start with some definitions – what “darlings” are, and what “Kill Your Darlings” really means. Then, we’ll take a brief look at why killing your darlings is awful advice when it comes to fiction. Finally, as I said, I’ll end the post with a brief speculation regarding what killing your darlings involves in nonfiction. Art is about passion. Art is about affect. Where’s all that if you “kill your darlings”? Kill Your Darlings: Meaning and Dynamics The phrase “Kill Your Darlings” (or some variation of it) is usually attributed to Preposterously, this peculiar piece of advice emerged in the context of style and “the art of writing”. Here’s what Quiller-Couch advocated: If you here require a practical rule of me, I will present you with this...

A murder in 1944 draws together the great poets of the beat generation: Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, and William Burroughs. A murder in 1944 draws together the great poets of the beat generation: Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, and William Burroughs. A murder in 1944 draws together the great poets of the beat generation: Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, and William Burroughs.

Kill Your Darlings streaming: where to watch online? You can buy "Kill Your Darlings" on Apple TV, Amazon Video, Google Play Movies, YouTube, Microsoft Store, Redbox, DIRECTV, AMC on Demand, Vudu as download or rent it on Amazon Video, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, YouTube, Vudu, Microsoft Store, Redbox online.

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Kill your darlings: letting go of good writing. Kill your darlings. It’s a common piece of writing advice, but what does it mean? I once thought that “kill your darlings” was strictly for storytellers removing unnecessary or problematic characters. But this piece of wisdom has broader applications. It can be used by poets, nonfiction writers, and anyone who puts words on the page (or the screen, as the case may be). Killing your darlings is about letting go of attachment to what you’ve written. Letting Go It sounds pretty zen: letting go of your attachments. But that’s exactly what killing your darlings is all about. Few writers stress about cutting weak sentences, flat characters, or awkward lines of dialogue. We don’t hesitate to axe a messy chapter or remove massive chunks of sloppy data that aren’t relevant to the topic we’re writing about. It’s easy to let go of the garbage. Letting go of the gems is a lot harder. Have you ever written a juicy sentence that rolled off the tongue like butter? Have you ever drafted a chapter for a book and couldn’t wait to put it in front of readers, because you knew it was captivating — even thrilling? If you write long enough, you’ll eventually produce writing that you’re proud of, writing that you want to show the world. But no matter how enthralling a sentence is, no matter how fascinating a character is, no matter how captivating a chapter or scene may be, if it doesn’t work within the larger scope of a project, it’s got to go. You...

‘Kill your darlings’ is a phrase that all creative writing teachers love to use. Do you know what it means? And what it doesn’t mean? This article will show you when killing your darlings is good. And how to resuscitate them. Kill Your Darlings! All creative writing teachers love that phrase. Because it works and there’s so much truth in it. When I heard it for the first time, I had loads of questions: Why does a writer have to kill anything? And what’s that darling everybody talks about? How are you supposed to kill it? And where does that phrase come from? This blog post will answer all those questions. Let’s start at the beginning. The Original Murderer Of All Darlings ‘Kill your darlings’ – many attribute this phrase to William Faulkner or even Stephen King. And yes, they have mentioned it. The phrase is actually a bit older. It all goes back to On The Art Of Writing (1916), where he says: ‘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.’ There you have it. If you’re a stickler for accuracy, you’ll note that Quiller-Couch talks about murder, not killing. That’s important! ‘Murder’ requires thinking, purpose, and control. ‘Killing’ simply means that you take away a life. Let me explain why Quiller-Couch is more accurate. Let’s remember that he was writing about style, and how a writer should be able to control it, rather than let sty...

In the early 1940s, Allen Ginsberg is an English major at Columbia University, only to learn more than he bargained for. Dissatisfied by the orthodox attitudes of the school, Allen finds himself drawn to iconoclastic colleagues like Lucien Carr, William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac. Together, this gang would explore bold new literary ideas that would challenge the sensibilities of their time as the future Beat Generation. However, for all their creativity, their very appetites and choices lead to more serious transgressions that would mark their lives forever. —

Harry Potter, Kill Bill, Spider-Verse, and Dune all embraced the two-parter. Photo-Illustration: Vulture A confession: I got Dune’d by Spider-Verse. Though I was semi-aware that this summer’s Across the Spider-Verse would be followed by a sequel, I was still taken aback when, just as the film seemed to be ramping up to its climactic showdown, it stopped in its tracks. The credits rolled, the lights went up. Drats! Another half-movie! It was the same unwelcome surprise that met Dune viewers who hadn’t caught the “Part One” in the title, unaware that the 2021 film only covered the first 50 percent of Frank Herbert’s novel. Both Dune: Part One and Across the Spider-Verse are part of a hallowed movie tradition: the two-parter. The practice has a spotty history, born sometimes out of creative necessity and more often out of simple greed. In recent years, a few key patterns have emerged. Here’s a taxonomy of all the different ways Hollywood sells you two tickets to one story. Parts two and three of a trilogy Back to the Future Part III (1990). Photo: Universal Pictures/Getty Images The modern practice of shooting a film and its sequel back-to-back kicked off in the 1970s, when producer The Three Musketeers and The Four Musketeers — a surprise to the actors, who thought they were only making one movie — then again on Superman and Superman II. A decade later, the Back to the Future sequels introduced the method most commonly used today. Call it the instant-trilogy strategy: You fo...

‘Kill your darlings’ is a phrase that all creative writing teachers love to use. Do you know what it means? And what it doesn’t mean? This article will show you when killing your darlings is good. And how to resuscitate them. Kill Your Darlings! All creative writing teachers love that phrase. Because it works and there’s so much truth in it. When I heard it for the first time, I had loads of questions: Why does a writer have to kill anything? And what’s that darling everybody talks about? How are you supposed to kill it? And where does that phrase come from? This blog post will answer all those questions. Let’s start at the beginning. The Original Murderer Of All Darlings ‘Kill your darlings’ – many attribute this phrase to William Faulkner or even Stephen King. And yes, they have mentioned it. The phrase is actually a bit older. It all goes back to On The Art Of Writing (1916), where he says: ‘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.’ There you have it. If you’re a stickler for accuracy, you’ll note that Quiller-Couch talks about murder, not killing. That’s important! ‘Murder’ requires thinking, purpose, and control. ‘Killing’ simply means that you take away a life. Let me explain why Quiller-Couch is more accurate. Let’s remember that he was writing about style, and how a writer should be able to control it, rather than let sty...