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Writing
To Write Well Sometimes You Have To Kill Your Babies
Occasionally, when I’m editing a piece of writing, I’ll run into a problem. There’ll be a phrase or a section that I think is great, but try as I might I can’t find a way to make it fit the overall flow.
Sometimes I’ll spend hours tweaking and editing and shifting words around before I’m forced to admit that it’s the section itself that’s the problem.
As “brilliant” as it might be, sometimes I accidentally write something that belongs in a different piece of writing. It’s like trying to use sushi as a pizza topping or putting chocolate ice cream in a burrito.
And when that happens, I have to decide whether to sacrifice the brilliancy, or everything else.
Of course, a single sentence is rarely so fantastic that it justifies compromising an entire article. But sometimes, just sometimes I let my little ice cream burrito fly.
