Murder Your Darlings

I finished the Stephen King book, and I really enjoyed it. The beginning section could have been longer (I loved reading about his early writer-life and how it all came together for him...fascinating), but I really did appreciate the guts of the book, particularly the sections focused on revising. King spoke quite a bit about his own processes once he's got a first manuscript draft, and considering that's what I've got right now, a first draft, I'm looking at it a bit differently.

More to the point, I'm trying to cut more out. To murder my darlings, as they say. And it's hard. It's hard when you really like a certain paragraph or page to admit that it doesn't fit. But thanks in part to Stephen King's book, I'm trying to be more generous with my red pen, and believe it or not, what I feel as I slash through various words and lines isn't panic or sadness, it's clarity, liberation even. Never would have guessed that, but there you have it. Murdering my darlings like a pro. And realizing that this book will be shorter than my last one.