Dictionary

kill one's darlings en · VERB

Pronunciation

• (Australia) audio

Etymology

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.

Meanings

1. (idiomatic) To destroy things or characters, particularly in art, of which one is fond, often reluctantly in order to improve one's artistic output.
   • [Fans] won’t participate in online dialogues and events, visit message boards and chat rooms or design games. As a result, platforms for supplementary advertising aren’t built, starving even the shows fans profess to love […]. Aloof and passive fans kill their darlings. 2008 January 20, Virginia Heffernan, “Art in the Age of Franchising”, in New York Times:
   • As the curators sifted through more than 100 years of artworks, disagreements inevitably arose. “We all had to kill our darlings,” says Foster. 2015 March 28, Ted Loos, “The Whitney Museum’s New Home”, in Wall Street Journal:
   • 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. 2011 January 30, Theodore Bale, “Choreographer Koresh debuts Sense of Human”, in Houston Chronicle:
   • Someone asked William Faulkner what the supreme law of art was, and he replied in three words: "Kill your darlings!" 1965, Raymond Léopold Bruckerger, The History of Jesus Christ, page 161:

Forms

wikipedia: William Faulkner · wikipedia: Arthur Quiller-Couch · wikipedia: Stephen King