Darlington Memorial Cemetery

[anthrodisiac]

Kill your darlings. We've all been there: you have a line, a character, a scene, a story; you love it, but damn, it just does NOT work with your idea. So, with a trembling hand, you pull the lever and send it into the abyss. We mourn them, and move on. Sometimes we rescue them, a stay of execution, and give them new life, a new forever home where they get to finally come into their own (or get killed again, but hopefully that first one). Unfortunately, most of the time they aren't given that second chance, and are cast aside, ne'er again to be witnessed by mortal eyes.

Well, DMC believes that such darlings don't deserve a cold, unmarked grave, but a loving space in which they can be remembered. This is a hallowed space, where you are free to give your darlings the send-off they deserve. These are cherished works of art, born from your creativity, and deserve to be honored and respected just as much as any other words and ideas you have; for if not for your darling, would you be in the spot you are today, with the story you have? Every step, even a darling that has to be cast aside, deserves to be celebrated and acknowledged.

So, let this be a space for you to lay your darlings to rest, so that they may find appreciation where once they withered away in obscurity. You are, of course, free to say a few words to memorialize your darling, should you so choose.

One last thing. I'd like to address the ugly, absolutely unfounded, frankly insulting rumor that's been floating around about Darlington Memorial Cemetery. No, this is not side hustle for Plot Bunny Pens. PBP the owners who are not PBP absolutely do not take the bodies of your beloved darlings and feed them to their plot bunnies, where they may or may not be integrated into said bunbuns and show up in stories elsewhere; even though it would be a beautiful recycling program and you ingrates should be so lucky that someone actually wants to use your stupid mother-fuc a wonderful way for your ideas to be honored. Additionally, you should in no way slip a "free-use," "resuscitable," "zombie," or similar such tag onto your darling should you be willing to let someone else maybe have a crack at it and give it a gone home, nor a "reserved" tag if you don't want anyone else to use it. And if any such darlings were to pique the interest of another writer, they should definitely not ask for permission unless it's clearly marked free-use, resuscitable, or zombie, and in all cases, regardless of tag, acknowledge the originator of the darling because that's the polite thing to do.

Not in the least.

...cough.

*Kudos to @TheLobster for murdering the original name and convincing PBP the owners who are not PBP to rename the enterprise as the much better Darlington Memorial Cemetery, even though it meant re-hiring the sign guy to amend the sign and paying Widdlefinks MCVI (a plot bunny about a man with a micropenis shrinking everyone on Earth so his penis seems big by comparison), to rework all two places on the internet that had the original name.

 

[anthrodisiac]

Wow, this is a nifty and dignified location, and it doesn't feel like a scam at all! What a great place to leave this darling from my WIP Diary of a Clutch Slut.

(Restricted)
I teeter on the cliff of dignity, talons dipping over the side, swaying; but archaeopteryxes are built to soar, so I lean forward... and plunge headlong into need.

And now, at the behest of the author, a few words for our dearly departed:
You were way too fucking literary, you overclever piece of nonsense, for first-person present tense POV from a breeding-brained archaeopteryx wondering if she's gonna let herself get plowed by a utahraptor, nor in any way consistent with the voice of said character, and you deserve to be chucked into the abyss despite your smug "look how nifty my metaphor is" attitude, even though it wasn't really THAT clever, you hack.

 

[Bamagan]

I studied Eastern philosophy for a bit back in college. We were reading and talking about Zen Buddhism, and during a lecture about letting go of the ego and its attachments, one classmate (older than traditional college age) asked the professor if that meant she was supposed to love her children less, as they were the most important people in the world to her. The professor's prompt response was, "No. It means you should love everyone else just as much."

There's no need to kill your darlings. You just need to give more love to the rest of your writing.

 

[anthrodisiac]

I studied Eastern philosophy for a bit back in college. We were reading and talking about Zen Buddhism, and during a lecture about letting go of the ego and its attachments, one classmate (older than traditional college age) asked the professor if that meant she was supposed to love her children less, as they were the most important people in the world to her. The professor's prompt response was, "No. It means you should love everyone else just as much."

There's no need to kill your darlings. You just need to give more love to the rest of your writing.

*glances at the Olympus Mons-sized pile of darling corpses*

...well now you tell me

 

[liliput1]

What name this gravestone held can be read by neither man nor crayon.

For a writing exercise, I pruned heavily for length. I deleted lines that did not serve the story, but some served the memory that was pilfered to give the story structure, a spark. Then I overwrote both originals before I had time to regret doing so. Hoping I would forget.

I did, but I also did not.

 

[TheLobster]

Right now I have no darling to bury, but I cannot help not to point out the extremely obvious opportunity for a pun that you've missed.

You should have called this thread Darlington Memorial Cemetery.

 

[anthrodisiac]

Right now I have no darling to bury, but I cannot help not to point out the extremely obvious opportunity for a pun that you've missed.

You should have called this thread Darlington Memorial Cemetery.

It's kinda bonkers how I missed that, because I went "Hmm, respectful burial place, oh, like Arlington, so Memorial would be good," and didn't even register how obvious that was. (Though it was about 1am and I'm exhausted as fuck, which honestly isn't a great excuse, but eh.)

Well, a new darling to be buried:
Darlings Memorial Cemetery, you were a brief light before your better appeared, and luckily the sign guy was only just leaving so he begrudgingly accepted another $20 to fix the sign, then PBP the owners who are not PBP hired a 14-year-old plot bunny named Widdlefinks MCVI to fix all the internet references.

 

[StillStunned]

Look on my unfinished works, ye mighty, and despair!

I'll pay tribute here to "Mrs Danbury's Party". It was a porn parody of a Regency story, with the hostess being completely oblivious to all the sex that happened at her parties. I started it before I'd even heard of Bridgerton (and Lady Danbury), and having watched most of the series I get the impression my story feels like a cheesy rip-off.

Also, I'd like to add a Tribute plaque.

 

[onehitwanda]

What name this gravestone held can be read by neither man nor crayon.

we need a chef's kiss emoji. Sigh.

I did, but I also did not.

So apt, and so appropriatable.

 

[MrStill]

Meanwhile, my erotic horror The Young Man and the Sea originally occurred on a ship twice as big with a large crew who got up to all sort of shenanigans until I looked at it and realised that they were only going on a three hour cruise. So I guess this one got buried at sea?
Do I get a plaque at the Darlington?