![]() They have previously generated a whole host of potential ideas through divergent thinking. Often, innovation teams fail at executing anything innovative because they are spread too thin. While this makes sense for creating art, it can be just as important for businesses as well. Sometimes, this could be pruning unnecessary words or entire paragraphs (even if you felt there was good stuff in there).Īt other times, it might mean getting rid of or combining multiple secondary characters into one, so that more emphasis can be placed on the main themes and characters.Īnd at other times, it might mean going through the story objectively and seeing whether themes and characters should be this story at all, or if they would make more sense in their own separate piece of work.Īll of this hard work makes it more likely that the artist can actually execute the core ideas to their fullest potential, and deliver the work to the world. Instead, it means that once all of the possible ideas have been put down in a first draft, you need to be willing to edit everything down if that is what is best for the story and the reader. Now, this advice does not mean that an artist needs to kill all of their favourite ideas. “Kill your darlings, kill your darlings, even when it breaks your egocentric little scribbler’s heart, kill your darlings.” Stephen King had this to say in his book On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft: ![]() Since then, the phrase has been repeated by many writers when asked for advice on their creative process, and how to become a better writer. ![]() “If you here require a practical rule of me, I will present you with this: ‘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. The origins of the phrase point to British writer Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch, who wrote in his 1916 book On the Art of Writing: So in order for any creative person to produce something which the audience will enjoy, then need to be willing to Kill their Darlings. However, too many different characters or story elements (even if each of them could be interesting individually) may actually result in a worse overall story which is harder for the reader to care about. For example in writing, the author may have a story with a whole host of interesting characters, each of whom could have their own backstory, journeys and arcs. This can be especially challenging for people to do when they are actually proud of all the ideas which they have produced. People have a propensity to try and solve problems by adding more detail rather than removing, but when it comes to almost any creative work, whether it is artistic or business, you need to be willing to edit all of your ideas down to the core story you want to tell. Sometimes, in order to produce the best creative work you can, it means you need to prune ideas from a project.
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