"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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yes, definitely important to distinguish between *good* storytelling and... basically tormenting your fans into staying against their will
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Well yeah and Lily goes into that in her big list of don'ts, she calls it "addictive storytelling" in that judgmental way of hers I mean honestly if she admits that the tropes she dislikes *work* to fill seats and sell tickets and she disapproves, who cares what she thinks
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Replying to @arthur_affect @spicy_iscariot and
We're all addicted to something man
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