kill one's darlings
verbEtymology
A piece of advice to prospective authors that they must kill their “darlings”, i.e. suppress overuse of their favorite expressions, tropes, characters, etc. Often attributed to William Faulkner (1897–1962), but already expressed earlier by Arthur Quiller-Couch (murder one's darlings); more recently popularized by Stephen King.
Definitions
To destroy things or characters, particularly in art, of which one is fond, often…
To destroy things or characters, particularly in art, of which one is fond, often reluctantly in order to improve one's artistic output.
- Someone asked William Faulkner what the supreme law of art was, and he replied in three words: "Kill your darlings!"
- In sharp contrast to choreographers who try to build a repertory that reflects an ongoing personal style, Koresh prefers to "kill his darlings," as he puts it, and start from scratch.
The neighborhood
Vish — recursive loop
No curated loop yet for kill one's darlings. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.
sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA