Most books on editing your writing talk about “cutting your darlings,” which is like film-editing whereby loved scenes end up on the cutting-room floor.

Most writers have phrases or dialogue running through their heads that they are “dying” to put into a book, character dialogue or essay. Sometimes it’s something brilliant, but most of the time it’s brilliant in the mind of the writer. Thus, these things should be cut.

I don’t sent them to the proverbial trash bin, however, I have a file of “darlings,” sometimes for each piece I’m working on and sometimes I’m not working on anything appropriate for a darling.

One such thing that I keep trying (and failing to use), is the concept of “collective nouns”, such as “a murder of crows or a charm of hummingbirds.” I keep trying to fit it into a novel, and it never seems to work. I even have a novel in my “unfinished and unlikely to finish file,” named “A Murder of Crows.” I also think it’s been used a few times as a mystery title. It may be my most persistent “darling.”

My husband doesn’t throw out anything, so I’m trying to take a lesson from him. He is a master of reusing his writing and ideas across book. Of course, it’s easier to do that with non-fiction. I don’t like clutter, so I tend to throw out all things I deem of little use anymore. Now, I’m trying to save more ideas, words, titles. After all, clutter that is confined to a file or other electronic storage doesn’t need to take up space or bother me at all.

Speaking of editing, I love this site that deals with all types of writing “problems.” The owner of the site is related to Charles Darwin, and her last name IS Darwin. bit.ly/4d4WSeS