One of the hardest things to do as a creative being is to kill your darlings. Sometimes other people will do that for you, sometimes they fall under their own weight. But more often than not, you are ultimately responsible for which ideas must die in order for others to survive.
So what does ‘kill your darlings’ mean to you?“In the creative sense of the term, the more you kill, the free-er your mind. The zen goal is to kill them all at one point.” - Martijn Pantlin
“It was author William Faulkner who said it first, and a whole lot of teachers of creative writing, film making, journalism and other kinds of storytelling have been repeating it ever since: Kill your darlings.
It means that you, in your [creative endeavours], should have the courage to get rid of the elements that you love so much yourself, but that don’t really add anything to the whole - or, even worse, actually weaken it. Typical “darlings” would be clever copy or images that don’t really relate to the project, details that don’t add anything new or that confuse the outcome, etcetera” via http://everything2.com/title/Kill+your+darlings
A creative endeavour with a defined goal needs to take the audience (or recipient) of the message from A to B without getting lost, or to fulfil some other higher purpose than to feed your creative needs. There are many ways to do so, but many ideas will die along the way. Be prepared for only one, or none, to survive. That’s why you need a thick skin and the courage to let your ideas die and move on.
Some ideas are not viable because they might be simply not appropriate. Other times it’s budget, practical constraints or even a client who will kill your ideas. As a conscious professional, it is also your own responsibility to show the client the one (or two) ideas you truly think are the best ones - which means you will have to kill a few yourself during the culling.
Take heart and remember: No matter how they die, you will always be able to come up with a better idea.
There is a moment in time when the universe freezes over. A darling has just been killed. Dead. Bleeding on the floor. It’s that moment, that infinite microsecond, that makes all the difference when you ask yourself: What now?
If you choose anger, frustration, resentment, despair or simply try to revive the dead corpse, you’re in for a long, bitter fight which will lead you nowhere.
Put your dead darling away for later, and start fresh. There’s always more where that came from. Analyze cause of death and make note of the pitfalls which killed it. Put it away for future reference someday and forget about it. Start fresh.
Kill your darlings - and move on.
