Just deleted 3,000 words from my novel draft and honestly feel lighter

Realized last night that my entire middle chapter was just me repeating the same emotional beat three times, so I axed it all in one go and now the pacing actually makes sense lol, anyone else ever kill their own darlings and feel relieved instead of sad?

3 comments

3 Comments

joseph_torres2mo ago

Read a writing blog that called this "killing your darlings" and I think that's exactly right. @gavin_hill27 nailed it with the grocery store story. Feels good to cut the fat.

gavin_hill272mo ago

I had this exact thing happen with a short story I was trying to get published last year. It was like 1,200 words about a guy walking through a grocery store at 2am, and I kept adding these little flashbacks with his ex-girlfriend. Every single one was basically the same sad feeling just dressed up differently, and I couldn't see it until a friend read it and said "hey man this is just the same paragraph three times." So I cut two of them out, kept the one that actually worked, and suddenly the story had room to breathe. It went from feeling like a slog to actually having a point.

aaron8841mo ago

Ngl I had a buddy who was writing this fantasy book and he had this whole side plot about a magic necklace that did like five different things. Every time his main character got in trouble the necklace would save them in a different way. He finally realized the necklace was basically cheating and deleted all the scenes except one where it just glows to warn them. He texted me at 2am like "dude I just killed the magic necklace and the story actually works now" lol.

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