Murder Your Darlings with Style

Published August 6, 2024

By Deborah L Brewer

“…kill your darlings, kill your darlings, even when it breaks your egocentric little scribbler’s heart, kill your darlings.” Thus, Stephen King famously paraphrased the words of a novelist from an earlier generation.

That novelist was Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch, an Edwardian-era, Cambridge Professor of English Literature and editor of poetry anthologies, otherwise known to his novel reading audience as Q.

In 1913, Quiller-Couch gave a series of lectures to fellow academics at Cambridge University proposing a new English curriculum. Among his aims was for graduates to write with skill in their native tongue, using appropriate, clear, accurate, and persuasive prose. Alas, he was a little ahead of his time. With the language of science then being Latin, his proposal was voted down. His colleagues didn’t see much value in the careful study of the English language or its classic literature, but they did ask him to share his thoughts on writing style.

On Style

Quiller-Couch declared first what style is not—“extraneous ornament.”

“Whenever you feel an impulse to perpetrate a piece of exceptionally fine writing,” he said, “obey it—whole-heartedly—and delete it before sending your manuscript to press. Murder your darlings.”

Good style, he believed, was essentially good manners.

“All reading demands an effort. The energy, the goodwill which a reader brings to the book is, and must be, partly expended in the labour of reading, marking, learning, inwardly digesting what the author means. The difficulties, then, we authors obtrude on him by obscure or careless writing, the more we blunt the edge of his attention; so that if only in our own interest—though I had rather keep it on the ground of courtesy—we should study to anticipate his comfort.”

And finally, a definition.

“This then is style. As technically manifested in Literature it is the power to touch with ease, grace, precision, any note in the gamut of human thought or emotion.”

To which I say, “I’ll have what he’s having.”

If you’ve spent more than a few minutes reading Victorian novels, you’d likely affirm Quiller-Couch’s strong feelings against excess. What about his writing? Did he practice what he preached?

In Q’s novel, In News from the Duchy (1913), the first-person narrative is lively and chatty. Compared to his contemporaries, Q’s style is less wordy, but not as spare as we generally write today.

What chiefly concerned Quiller-Couch were empty words; naughty words, he punned. In the context of line editing—empty filler words and equivocations. Quiller-Couch complained specifically about the writing of journalists, and I can’t help but wonder if being paid by the word had something to do with their style.

Timeless Advice

Today’s fiction writers have genre word count expectations to consider. If one tends to write short, trimming filler words may not sound like a win. There may be a temptation to leave not only meaningless words but also other extraneous elements.

Do you enjoy reading pages cluttered with pointless dialogue, tedious backstories, and descriptions that go on long past their contributions to the plot? I know I don’t. And I don’t imagine my readers do either.

If cutting extra words causes my story to come up short, yay! Not only is it now more focused, but I also have room to develop it further along its more focused lines.

Take the advice of Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch and Stephen King—Murder your darlings.

Do it for your readers. Do it with style.

***

Quiller-Couch Inspired Quotes from Stephen King’s, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

“Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch once said, ‘Murder your darlings,’ and he was right.” Section 9.

“Mostly when I think of pacing, I go back to Elmore Leonard, who explained it so perfectly by saying he just left out the boring parts. This suggests cutting to speed the pace (kill your darlings, kill your darlings, even when it breaks your egocentric little scribbler’s heart, kill your darlings).” Section 12.

“(When a novelist is challenged on something he likes—one of his darlings—the first two words out of his mouth are almost always Yeah but.)” Section 12.

Notes:

On the Art of Writing by Arthur Quiller-Couch (Cambridge 1916, Dover 2006, Quotes from the chapter, “On Style,” pages 203-210).

On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King (Scribner trade paperback edition June 2020). Stephen King, a former high school English teacher, is a celebrated American writer of short stories and novels.

Deborah L. Brewer joined Pikes Peak Writers a decade ago, seeking help with a cozy mystery. When the novel was completed, she stayed for the camaraderie. Now she’s writing short stories. An editor for the PPW 2022 anthology,  Dream, Deborah contributes to Writing from the Peak to help fellow PPW members write better with more enjoyment, and ultimately, achieve their writing dreams.