Writer's Block

My favorite writing tip

My all-time favorite writing tip is this: cut 10 percent.

When you've finished your final draft, and you think you're done, do a word count. Then go back over your story again and cut 10 percent of the words.

You think there's no fat left. There always is. You've got to dig into your sentences, find every word that doesn't directly serve the story. Take it out. All of a sudden, your sentences are tighter, more direct. Your paragraphs more to-the-point. The whole story takes on that clarity you killed yourself trying for, like putting on your glasses again after you've cleaned them. Cutting 10 percent doesn't just make the story shorter. It makes it better.

I especially like using this trick for complicated stories that need a lot of background, like this weekend's story about the Planning Department's decision to release an early draft of the Maui Island Plan. The story needed a lot of explanation for the lay person to understand, and I was struggling with getting bogged down in dense, wordy paragraphs. My goal was to lighten and clarify the story as much as possible, so ideally anyone could understand what was happening and why they should care. In a situation like that, the temptation is to say more. But a lot of times, the story will benefit most from that last-minute cut.

When you've finished your final draft, and you think you're done, do a word count. Then go back over your story again and cut 10 percent of the words.