Kill your darling copy.
How the advice of an obscure lecturer from 1914 and a newspaper style guide from 1917 can help you kill it with your content strategy
“Kill your darlings.” Not literally, of course.
But if you follow the advice of almost any introductory course on writing, you've learned to cut out anything gratuitous—a character, a paragraph, a word—especially if you're holding on to it too dearly.
Attributed often to William Faulkner or Steven King, the phrase "kill your darlings" (or "murder your darlings") first appeared in 1914 on the other side of the Atlantic. "If you here require a practical rule of me," Arthur Quiller-Couch lectured his students at the University of Cambridge, "I will present you with this: Whenever you feel an impulse to perpetrate a piece of exceptionally fine writing, obey it—whole-heartedly—and delete it before sending your manuscript to press. Murder your darlings."
Whenever you feel an impulse to perpetrate a piece of exceptionally fine writing, obey it—whole-heartedly—and delete it before sending your manuscript to press. Murder your darlings.
Before learning about Quiller-Couch, I'd assumed Ernest Hemingway had first come up with the phrase: "kill your darlings." Hemingway owned a gun, loved to fight. But more to the point, he ruthlessly strips writing to the bone.
His style obeys the maxim of Mies van der Rohe: "Less is more." His voice is direct. His eye, objective. His paragraphs, terse. Adjectives and adverbs axed away, Hemingway writes only the plainest and simplest of sentences.
A journalist early on in his career, Hemingway picked up his style from his employer’s guide to copywriting. The Kansas City Star advises: "Use short sentences. Use short first paragrahs. Use vigorous English, Be positive, not negative." The fifth commandment? Never use "old slang." "To be enjoyable, [slang] must be fresh."
Be positive, not negative.
Fast forward a century. That lecture by an obscure Cambridge professor and the style guide of The Kansas City Star live on. Not all content includes sentences and paragraphs. But a successful strategy follows the same rules: It’s fresh, accessible, and on target.
Plus, like any good story, good content strategy has a purpose, a trajectory. Anything that deviates from the mission is superfluous. At the heart of both lie understanding of and empathy for their audience.
At the heart of both lie understanding of and empathy for their audience.
No content exists to please its creator's idea of what is "exceptionally fine." To be enjoyable, it must speak directly to the concerns of the people viewing it on their screens. As part of a strategy, each piece plays a part in their story. Each acts as a step on their journey.
And so, darlin's. Here we are. 2021. If your content strategy isn't killing it already, don't trip. You're here. On a journey. And in good hands.
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