Try any goddam thing you like, no matter how boringly normal or outrageous. If it works, fine. If it doesn't, toss it. Toss it even if you love it.
Stephen KingRead
Kill your darlings, kill your darlings, even when it breaks your egocentric little scribbler’s heart, kill your darlings.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Let go of your favorite ideas or creations if they hinder your work.
In this quote, Stephen King emphasizes the importance of being ruthless in editing one's work. The phrase 'kill your darlings' suggests that writers should not cling to their beloved phrases or concepts if they do not serve the overall purpose of the narrative, highlighting the need for objectivity and self-discipline in the creative process.
Themes
EditingWritingCreativityObjectivitySelf-Discipline
In practice
Example use cases
A writer gives a talk at a literary festival about the importance of letting go of over-written passages.
More from Stephen King
All quotes →Eddie discovered one of his childhood's great truths. Grownups are the real monsters, he thought.
Stephen KingRead
Hairstyles change, and skirt lengths, and slang, but high school administrations? Never.
Stephen KingRead
Description begins in the writer’s imagination, but should finish in the reader’s.
Stephen KingRead
That's the day's business. Thinking. Thinking and isolation, because it doesn't matter if you pass the time of day with someone or not; in the end, you're alone. He seemed to have put in as many miles in his brain as he had with his feet. The thoughts kept coming and there was no way to deny them.
Stephen KingRead
Late last night and the night before, tommyknockers, tommyknockers knocking on my door. I wanna go out, don't know if I can 'cuz I'm so afraid of the tommyknocker man.
Stephen KingRead
Similar quotes
Semicolons . . . signal, rather than shout, a relationship. . . . A semicolon is a compliment from the writer to the reader. It says: "I don't have to draw you a picture; a hint will do."
George WillRead
A man who publishes his letters becomes a nudist - nothing shields him from the world's gaze except his bare skin. A writer, writing away, can always fix things up to make himself more presentable, but a man who has written a letter is stuck with it for all time.
E. B. WhiteRead
Above all, have a good time. If you aren’t enjoying writing it, you can hardly expect someone else to enjoy reading it.
Tom RobbinsRead
I've tried writing on a computer thinking it would make me more efficient, but if you're writing crummy stuff, being efficient is no help.
Jennifer EganRead
Write the best book you can, the one that demands to be written, no matter what genre it is. Even a trend the trades tell you has gone stale can be revitalized by a superb piece of writing. It'll never be revitalized by someone jumping on a trend bandwagon.
Jonathan MaberryRead
As to the adjective: when in doubt, strike it out.
Mark TwainRead