That writing teacher who said 'kill your darlings' was dead wrong for me

My high school creative writing teacher, Mr. Vasquez, kept hammering that phrase about cutting your favorite lines. I spent three years deleting every quirky observation or weird metaphor he called 'too much.' Last month I dug out an old notebook from junior year and the stuff I crossed out was actually the only good writing I had. Anyone else have a piece of advice they followed that made their work worse?

2 comments

2 Comments

milabaker16d ago

Wait, you had a teacher named Mr. Vasquez and he actually made you delete your own stuff? Like physically cross out your words on paper with a pen? That's brutal. I would have just ignored him and kept my weird metaphors.

fionarodriguez16d ago

Ugh, right? Mr. Vasquez was like a literary dictator with a red pen. He'd hover over your shoulder and literally make you scratch out words with a ruler until your paper had holes in it. I still have a scar on my hand from when he caught me trying to sneak a metaphor about a "spark of hope" and he made me erase it with sandpaper he kept in his desk.