My writing instructor told me to kill my darlings and I ignored her for months

Professor Harris in my creative writing class at Austin Community College kept saying I needed to cut the first two paragraphs of every story I wrote. I was stubborn and thought she just didn't get my style... then I finally tried it on a short story about a diner waitress. The piece got published in the school literary magazine after I chopped those 150 words. Has anyone else fought back against advice that turned out to be totally right?

2 comments

2 Comments

bell.taylor1mo ago

Wait, did you read that article in Poets & Writers last month where they talked about how Stephen King goes back and cuts like 10% from his first drafts? That stuck with me because I always thought famous writers just magically got it right on the first try. I mean, I had the same problem with my own writing until I heard this podcast interview with a editor from a small press who said most beginners overwrite their openings by a lot. It's weird how we get attached to words we spent time on, like deleting them somehow means the effort was wasted or something. The diner waitress story sounds cool though, glad you proved her right eventually.

the_skyler1mo ago

Right?! I had a whole 300 word opening about the weather in my first real short story and my workshop leader made me cut it, and suddenly my actual main character showed up on page one instead of page three. It was like magic but also super annoying that she was right all along haha.