One of the hardest things to do when writing (and thus one of the differentiators of really good writing) is to cut stuff that's genuinely good, just not good in the thing you're writing.
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I don't mean the proverbial "darlings" you're supposed to kill — the fine sentences you're proud of and thus hang onto even though though they should go. I'm talking about stuff that's genuinely good, just not good where it is.
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It's particularly hard to learn this lesson, because you never see the instances of it. You can see clear sentences and good rhythm and perfect word choices in the works of writers you admire, but you can't see the things they cut.
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counterpoint: the hardest thing is writing for offline publications that have arbitrary but unbreakable word counts, so you have to cut some bits that are good, and good where they are, but still don't fit
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Do you save them for later, in case you write something else where they actually fit?
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I'm not that organized. But if they're worth saying I'll probably reproduce them anyway if I get to a point where they fit.
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Psychological hack to beat this: cut paste into a new document and let it be the basis of a new essay/piece.
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Agreed. I tend to start a new doc called "stuff taken out of [old doc]".
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"Super" was especially very hard to cut off :(
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You'll have to explain the distinction. Aren't those the same thing?
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