GeppettoNoir
Shadow Work
- Joined
- Jul 10, 2025
- Posts
- 5
I wanted to be a writer.
"Don't be afraid," they said, "to kill your darlings."
Cutting. Surgical.
Removing a part of your creative work — something precious only to you — for the sake of the greater whole.
But what if you could bring them back?
"Veins of delicate ivy traced the exposed urban sinew of a world flayed by time and neglect."
I couldn’t bear to waste it. So after I cut it, I distilled it into a haiku:
Veins of ivy traced
Exposing urban sinew
Flayed by time's neglect
I brought my humble poem to the spirit of AI like a wounded sacrifice.
And what sprang from that sacred alchemy inspired me...
I will kill my darlings —
But the most beautiful of them, I will reanimate as fragments of what could have been.
An offering to each ghost of abandoned potential haunting the back of my mind.
Kill Your Darlings
[# 001]
View attachment 2558201
EDIT: Image #001 was removed. Perhaps considered NSFW somehow?
I cut this line from the story as well:
“Twisted metal clinked faintly against the rubble, chiming like hollow bones in the eerie calm.”
I loved it. But it had to go...
So I killed it... and shaped it's ghost with haiku.
Soft Clink. Faint metal.
Ruins chime like hollow bones
Eerie in the calm...
Kill Your Darlings
[# 002]
One of the things I like about traditional haiku formatting is how the presence of imagery can change the tone. In a way, it's like the imagery is music. Here's an alternative version of Darling #002 that I think illustrates this.
Alternative Version
Soft Clink. Faint metal.
Ruins chime like hollow bones
Eerie in the calm...
Kill Your Darlings
[# 002a]
So this was just a fun idea that kinda came out of nowhere. I'm thinking of doing it throughout the project that inspired it. Maybe even take it into other projects. I've got to admit... it feels really nice to actually be able to retrieve abandoned moments of creativity like this.
"Don't be afraid," they said, "to kill your darlings."
Cutting. Surgical.
Removing a part of your creative work — something precious only to you — for the sake of the greater whole.
But what if you could bring them back?
"Veins of delicate ivy traced the exposed urban sinew of a world flayed by time and neglect."
I couldn’t bear to waste it. So after I cut it, I distilled it into a haiku:
Veins of ivy traced
Exposing urban sinew
Flayed by time's neglect
I brought my humble poem to the spirit of AI like a wounded sacrifice.
And what sprang from that sacred alchemy inspired me...
I will kill my darlings —
But the most beautiful of them, I will reanimate as fragments of what could have been.
An offering to each ghost of abandoned potential haunting the back of my mind.
Kill Your Darlings
[# 001]
View attachment 2558201
EDIT: Image #001 was removed. Perhaps considered NSFW somehow?
I cut this line from the story as well:
“Twisted metal clinked faintly against the rubble, chiming like hollow bones in the eerie calm.”
I loved it. But it had to go...
So I killed it... and shaped it's ghost with haiku.
Soft Clink. Faint metal.
Ruins chime like hollow bones
Eerie in the calm...
Kill Your Darlings
[# 002]
One of the things I like about traditional haiku formatting is how the presence of imagery can change the tone. In a way, it's like the imagery is music. Here's an alternative version of Darling #002 that I think illustrates this.
Alternative Version
Soft Clink. Faint metal.
Ruins chime like hollow bones
Eerie in the calm...
Kill Your Darlings
[# 002a]
So this was just a fun idea that kinda came out of nowhere. I'm thinking of doing it throughout the project that inspired it. Maybe even take it into other projects. I've got to admit... it feels really nice to actually be able to retrieve abandoned moments of creativity like this.
Last edited:
