That advice about 'just kill your darlings' ruined my short story

An editor I met at a workshop in Austin last year told me I had to delete any sentence I was too attached to. I thought it was solid advice so I went home and cut out three paragraphs I really liked from a horror piece I was working on. The story ended up feeling flat and lifeless because those paragraphs were actually the heart of the character's backstory. I submitted it to a small press and got a rejection that said the story lacked emotional weight. Took me another two months to put those paragraphs back in and the rewritten version got picked up by a decent magazine. Has anyone else been burned by following writing advice that sounded good but was actually too broad?

2 comments

2 Comments

ericschmidt23d ago

Those three paragraphs you cut, did they feel like they were slowing the pace before the editor said anything?

milar4623d ago

That "heart of the character's backstory" bit really hit home for me. I learned the hard way that advice can be good in theory but you gotta trust your gut when it's actually killing the soul of the story.