Romance Writers Weekly-Kill Your Darlings

Carrie Elks came up with these week’s prompt.

Stephen King famously said that it’s necessary to ‘kill your darlings’ when editing your work. Do you have anything you had to remove from a book that you’re still proud of? Or something that embarrasses you so much it will never again see the light of day? If you’re feeling really brave, share some of it with us!

I hope you scooted over here from Jenna Da Sie’s blog! How many darlings did she kill? 

My very first novel, Highlander’s Hope, was originally 156,000 words. The finished manuscript is 85,000. Yes, that’s half!! 

When I first starting trimming it, I would remove a word or two, or if I felt really brave, an entire sentence. As I progressed, I graduated to paragraphs, and then whole chapters.

Now, I kill, kill, kill!

If a critique partner or beta reader questions a line, paragraph, or even a scene, I look at it carefully. If it’s not necessary, I hit delete! When I’m editing, I look to see how I can restructure sentences to make every word count. 

I tend to be a wordy writer, especially with first drafts, so pruning and trimming are must for me. I’ve written ten books now, and have learned to write tighter. Still, if there’s a term, phrase, or an scene someone suggests I cut, I still might refuse. I had an editor want to cut an entire scene in one of my books that I insisted stay. Readers still tell me that scene is one of their favorites.

I confess, though, I cannot wait to get the rights back to my first books, so I can apply all that I’ve learned to their less than stellar pages. I thought they were perfect at the time, but I know better now. 

I can’t wait to see how many darlings Fiona Riplee kills.  

Have you ever read a book that you thought needed to be trimmed a bit?