“Never want to say anything so strongly that you give up the option of finding something better. If you have to say it, you will.” – Richard Hugo, “Nuts and Bolts”
When you start writing a piece, you have a certain direction in mind. You know you want to talk about a specific idea. You may even have some thoughts regarding how to write about that idea. If you aren’t careful, those thoughts will imprison you. You will be stuck with a darling that will kill your writing if you don’t kill it first.
You must never, as Richard Hugo says, “give up the option of finding something better.” Your original thoughts are a starting point, not an ending. You don’t have to use them. They can be sacrificed if you find something better as you hone in on your primary idea.
Then again, your original thoughts sometimes are exactly the right things to write. The words pour onto the page. You reach your conclusion and find that it’s sound. The entire piece is solid. No darlings need to be killed. Nothing needs to be sacrificed. Every thought enlivens and clarifies your main idea.
Such occurrences are rare; you’re more likely to revise your original thoughts than you are to stick with them. That’s all right. Let them go. They might just come back to you in a different piece. They’ll be the right words, and they’ll be the right ones because you didn’t force them onto the page. They found their way there because they were not merely the better option but the best.
Image: Vinoth Chandar (Creative Commons)