The passages you are proudest of are the likeliest to be serving you rather than the work.
Quiller-Couch's 1916 lecture, in which he said murder your darlings. Frequently misattributed to Faulkner or Stephen King, and the test is whether the passage serves the reader or the author's pride.
In practice
- Quiller-Couch's 1916 lecture: whenever you feel an impulse to perpetrate a piece of exceptionally fine writing, obey it wholeheartedly, and delete it before sending your manuscript to press.
- A product team removes the feature the founder is proudest of and the retention figures improve.
- Possible explanations
- The explanation is that a passage which pleases its author often does so for reasons private to the author, such as effort spent or cleverness displayed, which the reader does not share.
- In its favour
- Editors and writing teachers report the pattern consistently, and it names a specific test: whether the passage serves the work or the writer.
- Against it
- It is advice rather than a finding, it can be applied to strip a work of everything distinctive, and it is frequently misattributed to Faulkner or Stephen King rather than to Quiller-Couch.
- Standing
- Frequently misattributed to Faulkner or Stephen King.
- Subject
- Creativity & Work
- Essay
- Protecting the conditions for good work