Try any goddam thing you like, no matter how boringly normal or outrageous. If it works, fine. If it doesn't, toss it. Toss it even if you love it.
Stephen KingRead
When your story is ready for rewrite, cut it to the bone. Get rid of every ounce of excess fat. This is going to hurt; revising a story down to the bare essentials is always a little like murdering children, but it must be done.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote emphasizes the importance of editing and revision in the writing process, akin to the painful necessity of letting go of unnecessary elements.
Stephen King's quote highlights the often painful but essential process of revising a piece of writing. He likens the act of cutting down superfluous content to a difficult personal loss, suggesting that effective storytelling requires distilling one's narrative to its most vital components, even when it feels devastating to do so.
Themes
WritingRevisionEditingStoriesPainCreativity
In practice
Example use cases
In a writing workshop, to emphasize the need for concise storytelling, one might quote Stephen King.
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Late last night and the night before, tommyknockers, tommyknockers knocking on my door. I wanna go out, don't know if I can 'cuz I'm so afraid of the tommyknocker man.
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In my view, the novelist has no right to express his opinions on the things of this world. In creating, he must imitate God: do his job and then shut up.
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