Killing your Babies

Contrary to what this might sound like, this post is not actually about killing babies. It’s a metaphor. (For those of you who have an obsession with dead babies, I apologize).

This is a phrase that one of my professors in my final year of undergrad told us in class. It was a class on feature writing, and he said that as journalists – or even just writers – sometimes the hardest thing we have to do is learn to kill our babies.

[Stop picturing dead babies. Just stop]

What he meant by that is during the research process, we often stumble across these mindblowing quotes or amazing statistics and bits of information that we feel just needs to be part of our article. Even while writing the initial drafts, we will write certain paragraphs that sound almost perfect. And then there’ll be a knock on our door, and we open it to find a rather annoying visitor: the word limit.

Now, for us carefree writers who write just for the sake of writing, this means nothing. But when you’re writing for a newspaper or magazine, there are major constraints on your space and word count. And so, when you realize that your wonderful article has gone way beyond the given word limit, you’re left with only one choice: start killing your babies.

Pick up that quote that’s so mindblowing, and ask yourself whether it is really adding anything to the story. Look carefully at those amazing statistics and see whether they are really relevant to the overall point you are trying to make. And go back to that almost perfect paragraph and see whether it is really needed to convey the larger point of your article.

And if the answer to any of those questions is negative or even a little doubtful – kill them. Kill your babies.

[Again, I feel the need to reiterate that I am not actually advocating killing real babies…Just in case you were planning to send me hate mail with the subject ‘baby killer’]

And if you think about it, this advice applies not just to writing, but to almost all aspects of our lives (except perhaps parenting). When you need to make a tough choice, check your priorities first. Figure out what’s most important to you, and let everything else slide past. If what you really want is to go for a vacation in order to relax, then perhaps stressing out over small details is not a helpful approach. If being healthy has top priority for you, then just throw the cake aside. If you really just want to spend time with your friends, then pause the TV show that you’re watching and actually step out of your house.

I know, it’s all easier said than done. Nobody said it would be easy. You’re giving up stuff that you really care about – and that’s precisely why it’s called killing your babies.

Try it sometime. It’s good advice.

And now that I’ve enlightened all of you with this ultra-bright piece of wisdom, I’m going to get back to my assignment and continue trying to kill some babies there.