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There’s a saying in journalism that rings so true a friend tattooed it on her body: Kill your darlings. Whoa, whoa, whoa — don’t panic. As morbid as it sounds, it has nothing to do with serial killers or crime sprees. It’s a reminder that in order to create something truly compelling and great, you often have to get rid of a clever turn of phrase you love or a quote that seems too juicy to ignore. If it doesn’t add to the story, it’s got to go.
And as a writer, artist or creative-person-in-the-world, that can be shockingly hard to do. We don’t want to let go of the good to make way for the great, because that nice-but-convoluted subplot or that “but it took me two hours to make!” graph on a Powerpoint presentation is good on its own, so it must add to the project’s overall greatness, right?
Wrong. And yes, it sucks.
Artist and writer Austin Kleon puts it a more delicate way in his book Steal Like an Artist:
“Creativity is subtraction.”
We live in an era where people are inundated with information — words to read, links to click, strings of texted emojis to decipher (what’s the deal with that creepy demon-face one, anyway?!) — and part of what makes something beautiful is choosing what to leave out. Heck, Apple has made billions off of the art of simplicity, and Dr. Seuss only used 50 different words to create his bestselling book, The Cat in the Hat.
How can you make your creative restrictions work for you? What kinds of parameters could lead to your best work? Kleon suggests trying to write a song during your lunch break, or shooting a movie with just your cell phone. (A similar idea paid off big time for those Blair Witch kids, remember?)
In that sense, you can think of this Tuesday Takeaway in two ways: The next time you feel a groan coming on about what you’re lacking, consider it a challenge to create within those restraints. Second, when you look at the finished product, see if there’s anything you can remove or delete that’d make the piece clearer, stronger and more compelling as a result. Leave a little more room for interpretation in your work; you may be surprised how much more people get out of it.
This post is part of Life Between Weekends’ Tuesday Takeaway series. Every Tuesday, we’ll share the most compelling insight we’ve gleaned from a book, movie, tour, documentary or article to inspire you during the workday.
