Creative Process

On Killing Your Darlings

I’ve always felt anxious when it comes to long-term projects. Back in middle school, the idea of completing a long-term service project for Girl Scouts felt so overwhelming that I ended up quitting altogether. Later on, I discovered that creating a work plan—and actually sticking to it—became one of the most effective tools for managing that stress.

In the Arts Second-Year Colloquium, we learned a strategy called chunking, where you break down a large project into 4–6 main tasks and then divide those into smaller, manageable to-do lists. This approach became the backbone of my work plan and played a huge role in helping me complete this project without being consumed by anxiety.

Heather, the instructor of section 0301 of the Arts Research Practicum, introduced us to the concept of “killing your darlings.” This idea emphasizes the importance of letting go of certain parts of a project—even ones you love—when they no longer serve the bigger picture. For this project, I let go of my initial idea to create a qualitative research-based zine that would’ve required IRB approval and semi-structured interviews. It was simply beyond the scope of what I could do with the time and resources available. Still, I’ve saved those ideas in a folder on my laptop, ready for when the right moment comes to revisit them.