Killing Your Darlings

Killing Your Darlings goes beyond the cliché to become a sharp, engaging, scalpel-wielding guide to self-editing—for writers who aren’t afraid to get their hands ink-stained. With gallows humour, literary side-eyes, and brutally honest advice, Jean G-Owen leads you through the crime scene of your own draft, uncovering everything from purple prose and bloated flashbacks to sluggish pacing, beige sentences, and the occasional anatomically challenging sex scene. Whether you’re pruning a poem, hacking through a novel, or just trying to make your sentences behave, this book will help you cut clean—and laugh darkly while you do it.