*Kill Your Darlings

Now I know how students feel when you tell them that a certain piece of their written work needs to be axed, especially if this piece is a darling.

Yes, we can all let misspelled words or dangling modifiers go with ease, but please, please, please do not ask us to delete our favorite line, anecdote, or quote.  

This happened to me recently. I showed a friend the wonderful anecdote below that I just had to have in a recent manuscript. (I found it in one of the books I used to research the piece I was working on.)

When the editor wrote back something like, **“You’ve got to be kidding me, right? And how does this story relate to your point?”

 I grew tenacious.

K: I can’t believe she wants me to get rid of that anecdote. It’s so funny. I’m leaving it in.

My loving friend: You’re right. The nerve of that editor!

I made every effort to hold onto my beloved anecdote during the second draft.

Needless to say, my darling did not make it. I grew wise and recognized that it did not fit into the manuscript, after all.

I share it here for posterity’s sake, and because it is still my darling.

Background before you read on: Congress had a time dealing with the slave question in Missouri Territory.

They finally got a vote on it and the next day one of the congressmen decided they should throw the vote out and start again. Henry Clay wasn’t having it.

 

 

The Trick

The day after the vote, March 3, 1820, John Randolph of Virginia asked Henry Clay, the Speaker of the House, if the vote could be reconsidered. Clay said it was too late in the day to consider Randolph’s suggestion. He told Randolph to ask again the next day and ended the meeting.

Early the next day, Randolph rose and asked once again if the vote could be reconsidered. Clay said, “Mr. Randolph, you’re out of order. We haven’t handled our routine business yet.”

Randolph sat down and waited. When no one was watching, Clay quickly signed the Missouri bill and asked a clerk to deliver it to the Senate. Later, Randolph stood again and asked that the vote be reconsidered.

Clay said, “I’m sorry, Mr. Randolph, but the Senate has the Missouri bill now.”

The Bill is Settled

When the clerk entered and said the Missouri bill was settled, Randolph became angry and urged other congressmen to demand a vote on the matter, but the vote failed. No one wanted to reconsider the Missouri bill.

 

**All quotes are approximations. Every effort was made to stay true to the spirit of exchanges without actually having to use exact language.

*I realize “kill your darlings” generally replies to favorite characters, but here I am using it to mean anything in your writing that you love.