Photo by: N.L. Belardes
One Bakersfield Woman's Blog to Mankind
Saturday, September 02, 2006
Kill Your Darlings…
Author, Bonnie Hearn Hill gave two outstanding workshops at the Yosemite Writer’s Conference on Point of View and Advanced Tips for Fiction Writers. In both sessions light bulbs were going off over peoples heads as they were struck with epiphanies of finally getting it. I was among the light bulb club. I admit I’m guilty of a lot of these in my own writing…
1) Avoid low concept stories – you want high profile stories
2) Avoid low concept protagonists – punch it up when you look at your characters. You want over the top, interesting and high profile characters.
3) Be Sure the scene goals are the protagonists and not the author’s – you create your characters and the character directs the story.
4) Practice the gold coin syndrome – teach something, sparingly share specific details that are little known gems.
5) Avoid to many gold coins – too many metaphors distract from the story, especially in prose.
6) Give them laughter or tears or both – make us feel, make us be part of the story. Do this with character and vulnerability.
7) Maintain emotional focus – remember your character’s emotional state at the end of the last scene when you begin the next scene.
8) Bring in a surprise character – don’t be nailed down to an outline.
9) Stamp out smiles – smiles, shrugs and frowns get rid of the tags! (I’m guilty of this one the most).
10) Kill your darlings – get rid of your brilliant phrases that really aren’t brilliant. Don’t repeat powerful words, they lose their affect.
One of the things that Bonnie said that really struck me in the heart is to write with passion. “Your first draft is the love affair, the rest is the marriage.” She said. “The writing is pure joy, editing is hard work.”
Read NL’s blog about Bonnie’s Point of View workshop…
Author, Bonnie Hearn Hill gave two outstanding workshops at the Yosemite Writer’s Conference on Point of View and Advanced Tips for Fiction Writers. In both sessions light bulbs were going off over peoples heads as they were struck with epiphanies of finally getting it. I was among the light bulb club. I admit I’m guilty of a lot of these in my own writing…
1) Avoid low concept stories – you want high profile stories
2) Avoid low concept protagonists – punch it up when you look at your characters. You want over the top, interesting and high profile characters.
3) Be Sure the scene goals are the protagonists and not the author’s – you create your characters and the character directs the story.
4) Practice the gold coin syndrome – teach something, sparingly share specific details that are little known gems.
5) Avoid to many gold coins – too many metaphors distract from the story, especially in prose.
6) Give them laughter or tears or both – make us feel, make us be part of the story. Do this with character and vulnerability.
7) Maintain emotional focus – remember your character’s emotional state at the end of the last scene when you begin the next scene.
8) Bring in a surprise character – don’t be nailed down to an outline.
9) Stamp out smiles – smiles, shrugs and frowns get rid of the tags! (I’m guilty of this one the most).
10) Kill your darlings – get rid of your brilliant phrases that really aren’t brilliant. Don’t repeat powerful words, they lose their affect.
One of the things that Bonnie said that really struck me in the heart is to write with passion. “Your first draft is the love affair, the rest is the marriage.” She said. “The writing is pure joy, editing is hard work.”
Read NL’s blog about Bonnie’s Point of View workshop…
i love that last quote you noted by bonnie... awesome!
May I offer a differing point of view? Bonnie and I would probably be on two separate sides of a great debate about art that has been going on for quite some time. People on the "kill" side of the debate admire mid-20th century lean, journalistic prose. This particular quote comes courtesy of Hemingway-worshiping spartans who believe that prose should be muscular, spare, and manly. Faulkner (to whom this quote is often attributed, although I've heard it tagged to others) claimed to be one of those, although he didn't often write that way.
My personal take is that this oft-quoted line has silenced more potentially great writers -- and squashed more beautiful prose -- than almost any other publishing cliche except for one attributed to Flannery O'Connor about writing programs.
Here's my counter-point view: Art is indulgent. It is rich. Sometimes it is florid. It exudes. And it doesn't need to be killed, nor do budding authors need to be given such a harsh directive for their emerging work. When a writer is in love with certain passages, those are often the best in the bunch! Writers, whether new or seasoned, honor me when they show me what they really wrote, not just what they think the Voices From On High think they should have written.
Love your darlings. Nurture them. Indulge your instincts. Go with your wicked and imaginative gut. Splash your wild, naked, technicolor self all over the page and give me the honor of reading it in all its intact glory.
But of course I'm being contrary. What else would you expect from a Pirate? :-)
I love the Georgetown Pirate... she's all about opening eyes and discussion to many possibilities and not always following the rules.
Thanks for sharing Georgetown Pirate! :)
Actually, now that I think about it, the original quote (whoever said it) was "Murder your darlings," and there is now a band by the same name. http://www.murderyourdarlings.com/bio.html
Sure, Bonnie is a former journalist, so she has a style that is straight to the point.
I have read her work and the Georgetown Pirate's work. My writing style is more like the Georgetown pirate's. It's not more imaginitave that Bonnie's. It just has a poetic ring to it that is sometimes a narrative style-driven tapestry, a web that characters are a part of. Think of a flower, now cast a dewy web of words around that flower; the dew is filled with reflections that describe that flower and coats its very nature; it sticks to it, becomes a symbiosis that exists in a structure of existance that for other writers is too coated, too sticky. Bonnie's style is more of a pin stuck straight through the flower. And that's OK too.
I think of Bonnie's tips as loose guidelines that can reel in writers who need the help reeling in. What did I learn from her? 1)I'm a rebel with an artform that can disappoint as well as capture readers 2)I'm not a perfect writer and need editing 3)I don't give up. And neither should other writers.
Bonnie and the Georgetown pirate represent two factions of writing. Spin them both into a style of your own. We all emulate someone(s).