Also, it suffers badly from Darlings: this is when an author discovers a Cool Thing, and is determined to use it whereever possible. Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch m

Also, it suffers badly from Darlings: this is when an author discovers a Cool Thing, and is determined to use it whereever possible. Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch meant something else when he said "Murder your darlings" in a lecture -- later published in 1914 as "On Style" [0], the final chapter of his book, "On the Art of Writing". He states that style is not about "extraneous Ornament" and gives an example. And at the end of that paragraph he goes on to say: ...and if you here require a practical rule of me, I will present you with this: ‘Whenever you feel an impulse to perpetrate a piece of exceptionally fine writing, obey it—whole-heartedly—and delete it before sending your manuscript to press. Murder your darlings.’ In the c2 wiki entry for "Kill your darlings" [1], the point is made that this can apply to programmers too: In software design, when you find yourself feeling particularly proud of a neat little bit of design or code, stop and ask yourself how someone who didn't give birth to it will regard it. If it turns out to be overwrought or too slick for the need, you should probably kill your darling and replace it with an ordinary solution that others can actually use, and not just marvel at. (Also, the word "glitter" is used a bit later there to describe the stuff that a writer should get rid of, which is wonderful, since it evokes the (relevant!) saying, "all that glitters is not gold" -- and because the point is made that glitter can be distracting to the reader, who is not as maternally invested in it as the writer.) The c2 wiki page also mentions Samuel Johnson's related phrase: "Read over your compositions, and wherever you meet with a passage which you think is particularly fine, strike it out." [0] http://www.bartleby.com/190/12.html http://www.bartleby.com/190/12.html [1] http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?KillYourDarlings http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?KillYourDarlings