Esmeralda Stone

A well-known piece of writing advice from Stephen King is ‘kill your darlings.’ What does this mean? It means after you’ve spent hours creating the most perfect scene (or paragraph) with witty dialogue, intriguing action, and immense tension, only to find out it does nothing to move the story forward—you kill it. Delete it. Erase it. Tear out the page from the notebook. Burn it. Whatever your method, it’s removed from the story.

Well, I’m here to talk about Darling’s know-it-all cousin, Nigel. Nigel is the information an author spent weeks, and sometimes months, gathering on a particular subject so that their book sounds legit. It could pertain to the plot, or perhaps the subplot. But there’s a lot of it—more than any reader wants to know—and could cover topics like the law, surveillance, raising snails, trimming bonsai trees, insurance, embalming, growing turnips, dyeing mud, racing horses, or collecting lint.

The author feels compelled to share Nigel with their readers because he’s terribly fascinating and knows so much! And damn it, they spent all that time and energy learning about him. And then, while editing, they realize two sentences about collaging with sloughed-off skin is more than adequate to make the antagonist sound like a weirdo. Nobody needs half a chapter about it.

So, when editing your story or book, kill your darlings. And make sure Nigel is toast, too.