kill one's darlings

Meaning

Verb

• To destroy things or characters, particularly in art, of which one is fond, and thereby conflicted about.

Origin

• A piece of advice to prospective authors that they must kill their “darlings”, i.e. suppress overuse of their favorite expressions, tropes, characters, etc. Often attributed to William Faulkner (1897–1962), but already expressed earlier by Arthur Quiller-Couch (murder your darlings); more recently popularized by Stephen King.