Lol the "efficiency" discourse from writing classes has really done a number on people's psyches hasn't it It is necessary for me to enjoy writing the thing and people to enjoy reading it If you take away something that people enjoy, you have removed something necessary
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"Kill your darlings" is one of those pithy, vague sayings that's gotten a lot of traction because it sounds really badass and tough and mean, and there's always a ready market for getting advice that feels like abuse so it feels like you're really doing something
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But like all such pieces of advice if you really dissect it's just a tautology "Only keep the stuff that's actually good and get rid of the stuff that's bad"
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Replying to @arthur_affect
Most tautologies are only tautological from a certain perspective. Like "all bachelors are unmarried men" is either a tautology, or a definition depending on how you look at it.
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Replying to @PossibleCabbage
The bland, un-badass way to phrase "Kill your darlings" is "The book probably isn't as good as it could be on your first draft, and if you spent some time working on it you could probably make it better" That's all you really need to say
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Replying to @arthur_affect @PossibleCabbage
I'd always heard it as advice not to get too attached to a good moment at the expense of the overall story.
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Replying to @RothAnim @PossibleCabbage
Yeah, sometimes it's good advice, sometimes it's not Sometimes you realize that moment is the only thing you actually care about, that you want to write for readers who care about that moment, and you ditch the rest of the story
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Just saying, if Supernatural had killed their darlings they'd literally have killed Castiel when they were supposed to in like Season 4 and the show would've been canceled ten years ago
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the way Castiel proves one of this person's 90 million rules right (powerful relationships will keep fans coming back) while simultaneously proving another one wrong (the idea that people will not find 87 seasons of unresolved sexual tension compelling)1 reply 0 retweets 3 likes -
I mean I have to emphasize that I do not, at the end of the day, personally find Supernatural to be a very good show, and yet if you get renewed for 15 seasons it's hard to say you didn't do something right
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I keep thinking of the Noel Coward quote "Extraordinary how potent cheap music is", which I think is more interesting than just "No accounting for tastes" Maybe Supernatural doesn't hold together as a work of art very well but that's not what the customers were buying
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It's interesting, some of the most enduring fandom communities - esp. the ones where fanworks/shipping are central - form around some of the most mediocre source material. Supernatural's storytelling gets dragged pretty harshly by its own fandom :)
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Replying to @spicy_iscariot @arthur_affect and
If anything, works that are "too good" seem to inspire disproportionately few fanworks...
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