That old guy at the writers' retreat told me to kill my favorite scene

I spent 4 days building up this twist ending where the main character dies, and then this retired editor from Boston just said 'cut it, it's cheap.' Has anyone else had a beta reader or mentor completely trash something you thought was genius?

3 comments

3 Comments

roberts951mo ago

Tbh I'd tell that old guy to take his Boston chowder breath somewhere else. Killing your favorite scene is like telling someone to throw away their lucky socks before a big game. Honestly though, I had a writing teacher once tell me my whole 50 page short story was garbage because I used the word 'whispered' too much. Ngl I was so mad I didn't write for two weeks. But looking back, she had a point even if she was a total buzzkill. Sometimes the stuff we think is genius is just us being too close to it. Maybe keep that scene in a separate file and see if the story works without it first.

terryw671mo ago

My first draft of a short story had 147 uses of "sighed" so I feel that whispered pain @noahmartin. Kept the file though, just in case sighs make a comeback someday.

noahmartin1mo agoTop Commenter

Nah that teacher was just a hater with a point. Saved that whispered file somewhere? Genius move. Sometimes you gotta kill your darlings even if it hurts. Kept a whole chapter from my first novel in a folder called "maybe later" for like three years. Never used it but it felt better knowing it existed somewhere.