What does "kill your darlings" actually mean for fiction writers-- and how do you know which parts of your story should be cut?

In this episode, I explore a problem with one of writing's most popular pieces of advice: and give you a solution that works well for me. I'll give you a way to decide.

I also break down two ways you might notice a possible "darling" in the first place.

Then I give you three questions you can use to test if something is a darling.

Most importantly, I reverse the usual advice.

This episode is perfect for you if you have questions like:

* What does "kill your darlings" mean in fiction writing?
* How do I know what to cut from my story?
* How do I know if a scene belongs in my novel?
* What should I do when beta readers dislike a scene I love?
* How do I decide whether feedback means something should be removed?
* Can a good scene still be wrong for the story?
* How do I know what reader experience my story is creating?
* Should every scene match the same tone or mood?
* What if my favorite part of the story doesn't fit the rest?
* When should I change the story instead of cutting the thing I love?
* How can discovery writers decide what belongs after drafting?
* How can I revise fiction without cutting the things that make it unique?

Robert E. Howard didn't tell Conan the Barbarian's life in chronological order. One story might find Conan as a young thief, another as an older adventurer, and another somewhere entirely different-- and somehow those gaps make his world feel bigger rather than incomplete.

In this episode, I'm joined again by writer and editor Matt Click to talk about what Conan can teach fiction writers about writing stories and series out of order.

We explore an approach I'm calling modular continuity: creating stories that work independently while still belonging to the same character, world, and larger continuity. Instead of filling in every step of a character's life, you can establish important anchors, leave open space between them, and write the adventures that interest you.

Along the way, we talk about Robert E. Howard and pulp storytelling, why the Hyborian Age feels so enormous, Conan's surprising humanity and intelligence, The Tower of the Elephant, Savage Sword of Conan, Frank Frazetta-- and the extremely important question that started this entire conversation: Why does Conan rip so hard?

Questions this episode explores:
Can you write a fiction series out of chronological order-- and do it well?
How do you keep continuity while leaving gaps in a character's timeline?
What is modular continuity?
How can standalone stories still feel like part of a larger series?
Can leaving parts of your fictional world unexplained actually make it feel bigger?
Why has Conan the Barbarian remained such a compelling character?
What can fiction writers learn from Robert E. Howard's approach to serialized storytelling?

What makes your writing original when your story idea isn't completely new? In this episode, I explore why 'original fiction' isn't about having an idea nobody has ever had.

I'll use Pokémon to show how influences can pass through one creator and become something new. Then I give you a simple exercise for finding the fingerprints already present in your own fiction.

Most importantly, I make the case for why the fiction only you can write is worth making and putting into the world.

In this episode, I answer questions like:

• What makes your writing original if your story idea isn't new?
• How do I know if my story is original enough?
• What truly makes one writer's work different from another's?
• Do fiction writers need completely original story ideas?
• How do your influences and personal experiences shape your writing?
• How can you use creative influences without feeling like you're copying?
• How can you find what is uniquely yours in your own writing?
• Why can two writers start with similar ideas and create completely different stories?
• Why does your individual perspective matter as a fiction writer?
• Why is the fiction only you can write worth finishing and sharing?

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Fiction Writer's Toolshed -- Episode 26

How do you write a scene that actually earns its place in the story? A scene can be well "structured", full of dialogue, conflict, action, or exposition and still feel like nothing happened.

In this episode, we talk about how a scene is a specific sort of container, and how to fill it. You'll learn how to separate activity in a scene from real change, choose a change target, and use a simple "dial" to track what changes and by how much.

This approach works for outliners and discovery writers, and it leaves room for slow burns, fast changes and even intentional stillness.

Along the way, we'll use Robert McKee's Story as a jumping-off point and adapt and simplify the idea for prose fiction, comics, screenplays, and other forms of fiction.

The question to carry back to your manuscript: What will be different because you spent the reader's time here?

Questions this episode helps answer:

• How do you write a scene that actually moves a story forward?
• What is the purpose of a scene in fiction?
• How do you know whether a scene is necessary or earning its place?
• Does something meaningful have to change in every scene?
• How can outliners and discovery writers use the same scene-writing tool?

Trey Parker and Matt Stone's famous South Park writing rule is deceptively simple: if the beats of your story are connected by "and then," you may have a problem. Instead, they recommend building stories with "but" and "therefore," so one event causes or complicates the next.

It's great writing advice. But how do you actually use it to fix a story? What's the formal tool?

In this episode, I trace the idea from Parker and Stone's viral 2011 NYU writing lecture, to The Devil Wears Prada screenwriter Aline Brosh McKenna, all the way back to Aristotle's Poetics from 2000+ years ago. A chain to find a chain.

Then we turn the principle into a practical fiction-writing tool: the Causal Chain Audit.

If your novel, short story, or screenplay feels like a stack or 'gathering' of good scenes that somehow still isn't pulling you forward, this is a diagnostics tool you can use directly on your draft (and maybe even on your outline).

Links from Steven:
https://www.thesukha.co/for/writers

https://www.thesukha.co/post/the-magic-and-science-of-flow-states

What actually happens when a writer enters a flow state? And can you learn to reach that true flow state more reliably?

In this follow-up conversation with Steven Puri, founder of The Sukha Company, former vice president at Fox, and former executive vice president at DreamWorks, we dig into the origins, science, and practical experience of flow.

Steven explains how psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (it took me forever to Google this name and actually find it) identified similar patterns among high-performing athletes, artists, musicians, scientists, and other creators. We talk about losing track of time, becoming less distracted, quieting self-judgment, and reaching that strange point where the work begins to feel... different in a way that only flow can feel.

We also revisit my recent episode about writer's block. Steven challenges part of my original argument, and together we work toward a more complete explanation of what can stop writers from beginning-- or cause them to reach for a distraction halfway through the work.

Let's get started.

Links from Steven:
https://www.thesukha.co/for/writers

https://www.thesukha.co/post/the-magic-and-science-of-flow-states

How do you get into a flow state as a writer-- without needing the perfect morning routine, the perfect playlist, or some magical burst of inspiration?

In this episode of Fiction Writer's Toolshed, I'm joined by Steven Puri, founder of The Sukha Company and creator of the Sukha flow-state app, to talk about practical ways writers can focus more deeply and build conditions that make creative work easier to repeat.

Steven brings a pretty unusual perspective to the conversation. He previously served as a vice president at Fox and an executive vice president at DreamWorks, worked alongside some of Hollywood's top screenwriters, and produced the digital effects for Independence Day, whose visual-effects team won the Academy Award.

We talk about what Steven learned from watching elite writers work under real deadlines... and how much their productivity often depended on understanding themselves rather than following some universal creative routine.

If you've ever wondered how to get into flow while writing-- or how to make focused creative work more repeatable-- this conversation gives you several things to experiment with immediately.

Ever sit down to write a scene you can already see perfectly in your head, and watch it go stiff and lifeless the moment your fingers hit the keys?

In this episode of Fiction Writer's Toolshed, we look at the gap between the part of your brain that makes the story and the part of your body that has to get it onto the page-- and why, for a lot of writers, the bottleneck is the hands.

You'll learn how to draft fiction by talking into the voice recorder already in your pocket, and why speaking a first draft isn't just three times faster than typing it. SPOILERS: It's that you can't revise while you're talking. There's no backspace on a mouth.