Professional Writing Advice

There is nothing more difficult than writing short.  So much of what’s written is fluff.  So much is a clearing of a throat when it comes to writing.  It’s the most urgent flaw that those who make a living writing constantly battle.

While I by no means consider myself an excellent writer, I do verge on decent at times.  But then I’m reminded of my inadequacies whenever a good editor takes his or her pen to my stuff (and it’s usually a “her” because for some reason women tend to be better editors and proofreaders and, on the whole, smarter than men).

More than any other form, sales copy must aspire to the greatest economy of phrasing.  And just when I’ve achieved the final cut, my boss or some other decent editor cuts a line or two and trims words and suddenly the copy sings even stronger. 

Professional writing means returning time and again and cutting, cutting, cutting.  Seldom are muscle and bone sacrificed, it’s always fat.  So the next time you have to write something and you think it’s finished, see if there’s some way to reduce it by at least a third.

Few of us are paid by the word.  So spend the extra time to write less.  Cutting is an extreme mental exercise that substitutes for chess and jigsaw puzzles in my case. After all, isn’t it better to complain that the book or movie was too short, rather than it was too long?

Compression is a game anyone can play.  Using fewer words will attract greater attention than using more.  I hope your job doesn’t depend on it like mine does—-and I still do not consider myself good at it.