Writers--Tight is Right

 

When we look at a blank page, be it in a book to use for journaling or on our computer screen, we can write anything we want to. And any way. It's our choice. No holds barred. But wait...

We do have to stay within certain perimeters if we want to see our work published. Editors set word counts. They tell us to send a 'story' not an 'essay' or they tell us what we send must be fiction, or sometimes true. They also don't want writers rambling all over the page. Instead, we're urged to 'write tight.' So many guidelines that fence us in a bit.

To be published, we must follow those rules set by the people who have the final say as to whether your story will be seen by the public or not. 

Let's look at the art of writing tight. Our aim in anything we write is to grab the reader's attention and keep it. If we ramble like a herd of cows on the prairie searching for ever-sweeter grass, we're going to lose our reader in a hurry. 

Master the following and you'll never have a problem being told to write tighter:

1. Eliminate unnecessary words like just, really, quite, very. They do nothing but take up space. 
2. Use active verbs to replace the 'to be' passives like was, is, had been, are. To do this, you may have to flip the order of the sentence. Don't just try to insert the active verb where you had the passive one. It doesn't always work.
3. Practice writing flash fiction; enter flash fiction contests. You want to try the ones that ask for 100 to 300 words, or even less. There can be no extras in this kind of writing. 
4. Delete words wherever you can. If your max word count is 1200, and you have 1357 words, don't despair. You can cut those extra words and not lose anything in your story. I've done it many times, and you can, too. Look for ways to reword a sentence so that it uses fewer words but still gets the same idea across. Cut those unnecessary words. Do all the things mentioned in this list, and you'll be surprised at how many words you can cut. 
5. Get rid of dialog tags by using merely an action to show who spoke. Jane slammed the book on the table. "I will not read anything this woman writes again!" There is no need for the usual 'she said' It's perfectly clear who said it.
6. Use clear and to the point sentences. Don't embellish with lots of adjectives and adverbs.
7. Read a lot of poetry. Why? Poets are masterful in economizing on words. Note how they write and try it in your prose.

Can you write 'too tight?' Yes, and you want to be careful that you don't cut down and out so many things that you've lost your story and will surely lose your readers. 

Keep in mind that 'tight is right.'

What? Cut My Precious Words?

I've used this poster quote before, but it seemed a good one for today's topic. Cutting your precious words! Earlier this week, an editor asked me to send him a piece he could use in a memories section of a senior newspaper. I sent him one on my memories of November during my growing-up years in Chicago.

He wrote back that it was fine, that he'd like to use it but it needed to be cut to 750 words. The version I'd sent him had close to 1,050 words. My first reaction was What? Cut 300 of my precious words? I feared I'd lose important parts of this personal essay. I sent a message to him that I'd work on it and get it to him in a couple of days.

The next day, I avoided the task completely. On the second day, I knew there was no more putting it off. I started with the opening paragraph and chopped off an entire sentence. On to the next para where I axed another 25 words, keeping watch on the word count in the lower left corner of the Word document. I wanted to see the numbers go down!

By the time I'd reached the end, I had 742 words left. I managed to reach the golden number but it was then time to read the piece from start to finish and see if it all made sense. Were things still clear? For the most part, they were. I cut a bit more, then added a little to clarify certain areas but still kept the word count down.

Cutting a lot of words is a daunting task but you often find that you end up with a stronger piece of writing than the original. I tried changing a full phrase to one or two words--ending up with the same meaning but fewer words. I reversed the order of some sentences which allowed me to chop a few words. I dropped an adjective here and there. It all adds up to more words cut than you thought was possible. I looked for redundant areas which were easy places to lose words. Why say the same thing twice, even if with different words?

I ended up being grateful to the editor for asking me to cut the word count because I think I sent him a better piece of writing than the wordy original.

When you revise and edit a first draft, consider cutting words. Those first drafts tend to be very wordy. We feel the need to go on and on when a shorter bit would be more interesting and impressive. Quite often, we must write to a certain word count. Editors have only so much space and your work has to fit into that already-designated space. Contests put a word limit on entries.

One of our best writing tools is the ability to cut our own precious words.

Cut Those Words! It Won't Hurt Them A Bit

This morning, a member of my online writer's group posted a resub of a piece she'd subbed awhile back. She'd written it for a competition and when she finished the first draft, it was way too long. When contest guidelines give a word count maximum, they aren't kidding. They mean it. Go over the limit and you risk your entry being trashed before it's even read.

She went back to work. She cut 600 words from the first draft and she's still 69 words too high. That's why she resubbed the piece. Maybe some of those who critique her work will be able to cut those 69 words. I'm planning to crit it and will look at it as a challenge to slice away those extra words.

I've found that, when I edit something I've written and do some major cutting, I generally end up with a stronger story. Write tight! That's writing advice most all writers have heard or read at some time in their career.Trust me. It's to the writer's benefit to do so. We needn't fret about losing some of those precious words we've written.

How do you manage to cut a whole lot of words when writing to a specific word count? There are a few ways to accomplish the task.

1.  Keep the word count in mind as you write the first draft. You won't hit the magic number by doing this but you'll know when you start going way over the limit.

2.  Go through the first draft and look for repetition. I've mentioned many times that the writer does not need to keep repeating information. Give it to the reader once and respect the fact that they'll 'get it' then. Some of us have this need to say something two or three times so we're sure the reader understands. Say it once but say it well!

3.  Cut adjectives and adverbs. Yes, you do want to make use of them to add to the bare bones of a sentence but you needn't overdo it. Too many adjectives make for flowery prose that can overwhelm the reader.

4.  Ask yourself if every paragraph is important to the story/article/essay. Is there too much information? Does everything you've written cycle back to the main idea of your piece. If it veers off in any way, cut it!

5. A very easy way to cut some words is to revise the order of a sentence. Look at a particularly long sentence and ask yourself if there is another way to say the same thing? Usually, there is.