Killing Your Babies

There is a method used in creative writing to help writers eliminate passages in their works that may be hindering the flow of their story or article. It’s called, “killing your babies.”

This method requires the writer to revisit their favorite passages, and do an honest assessment of whether it contributes to the “leit motif” (lead motive), the theme of the work, or just serves as filler.

Anything that does not contribute significantly to your theme or that interrupts the flow, should be “killed.” Cut it out, delete it, forget it. Let it go.

Ernest Hemingway’s stories serve as perfect role models for all writers wanting their work to be clean and efficient. Whether you are writing fiction or non-fiction, there are always some sentences, paragraphs or sections–babies–that do not belong, and can be removed without loss of your leit motif.

Brutally honest about his own work, Hemingway is quoted as having said that his fiction was nothing more than “dialogue interrupted occasionally by character arcs.”

The man knew the how and why of killing his babies.