The classic advice to cut passages you love when they don't serve the story, no matter how beautiful they are.
"Kill your darlings" means being willing to delete or drastically rework the sentences, scenes, or characters you're most attached to when they aren't earning their place in the manuscript. The phrase is usually attributed to William Faulkner, though variations go back to Arthur Quiller-Couch in 1914. The core idea is that emotional attachment to your own writing can blind you to what the story actually needs.
The passages you love most are often the ones that trip up your readers. That lyrical two-page description of the sunset? It might be gorgeous writing, but if it kills the pacing of your chase scene, it has to go. Learning to cut your darlings is what separates writers who revise effectively from writers who just polish what's already there.
King cut over 400 pages from the original manuscript. The restored edition later showed that many of those cuts were the right call - beloved scenes that slowed the story's momentum.
Fitzgerald's editor Maxwell Perkins pushed him to cut entire sections of backstory. Fitzgerald resisted, then relented, and the lean final version became one of American literature's tightest novels.
Rowling has discussed cutting an elaborate early chapter about the Potters that she loved but that delayed getting to Harry's story. The backstory was woven in gradually instead.
The advice isn't about punishing yourself. It's about recognizing when your attachment to a passage is blinding you to a structural problem. If a beloved scene also serves the plot, keep it.
Keep a "darlings" file where cut passages live. Sometimes a line that doesn't fit Chapter 3 belongs in Chapter 12. And even if it never comes back, knowing it's saved makes cutting easier.
Sunk cost isn't a reason to keep a scene. A paragraph that took you three hours but confuses readers is still hurting your story. Judge by impact, not effort.
Darlings can be entire subplots, characters, or structural choices. If your favorite side character's arc doesn't connect to the main story, that's a darling too.
Open a draft you're currently working on and find your single favorite paragraph - the one you're proudest of. Now delete it (save a copy first). Read the surrounding text without it. Does the story flow better, worse, or about the same? If it reads fine without it, the paragraph was a darling. If the story genuinely suffers, put it back.