Dark nugs?

I have my first plant outdoors this year and I take lil nugs off to see how its doing cuz I'm an amateur and im quite excited. Anyway, I've done this twice. Both times the nugs got all dark and shriveled up after about a day. Is there something wrong with the bud or am I not drying it right? Or is just way too premature? I've been searching google for like an hour and half now and I feel fucking retarded cuz I haven't found shit.

well, how are you drying it? If you're picking them off early, then they're probably premature. let it do it's thing. Patience.