Writers talk of “killing your darlings”—the ruthless side of writing, where we need to excise whole sentences or paragraphs or even pages but find it excruciatingly hard to do because we’re in love with them. Is this more than mere narcissism? Why do we find it so hard to let go of our darlings? And do we ever really kill them, or do they haunt us, living on in a kind of a half-life as disjecta membra, the “disjected” fragments of our minds and lives? One way or another, writer Rebecca Brown, Town Hall Scholar-in-Residence Lesley Hazleton, Stranger editor Christopher Frizzelle, and Town Hall Artist-in-Residence Aham Oluo tackle their writing ghosts—and anyone similarly haunted is welcome to join in. Presented by Town Hall as part of its Artist/Scholar in Residence Program, with media sponsorship by The Stranger.
Tickets are $5 at townhallseattle.org or 888/377-4510 and at the door beginning at 6:30 pm.
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We all must cultivate a trusted editor who will kill our darlings for us.
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[...] Tomorrow night at Town Hall, four writers are divulging their secrets: Writers talk of “killing your darlings”—the ruthless side of writing, where we need to excise whole sentences or paragraphs or even pages but find it excruciatingly hard to do because we’re in love with them. Is this more than mere narcissism? Why do we find it so hard to let go of our darlings? And do we ever really kill them, or do they haunt us, living on in a kind of a half-life as disjecta membra, the “disjected” fragments of our minds and lives? [...]
[...] Tomorrow night at Town Hall, four writers are divulging their secrets: Writers talk of “killing your darlings”—the ruthless side of writing, where we need to excise whole sentences or paragraphs or even pages but find it excruciatingly hard to do because we’re in love with them. Is this more than mere narcissism? Why do we find it so hard to let go of our darlings? And do we ever really kill them, or do they haunt us, living on in a kind of a half-life as disjecta membra, the “disjected” fragments of our minds and lives? [...]