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O P I N I O N
Writing less
W hen I started writing this column in 2004, the size limit was 800-850 words. Sometimes, the topic was one about which I could write much more than the limit. But this was my column, so I could rethink and tweak the idea and title until I had a subject for which I could stay within the word limit. It can be harder than writing more, but oftentimes it’s necessary, so learn how to cut without gutting your message.
a scalpel – one word or phrase at a time – until I’m close enough to the limit to submit the article. The challenge: making all these cuts without “Proposal limitations are very different. Instead of a maximum number of words, you get a maximum number of pages and, possibly, limitations on font sizes and margins.”
Bernie Siben THE FAST LANE
Now the size limit is 650 words, but my process is pretty much the same. I start with a “brain dump” – getting as much information as possible from my brain to the document. That is always more words than the limit. Sometimes, many more words. So I read everything and determine what thoughts do not really “earn their place” in the document. Next, I reorganize for smooth “flow.” Then I read again to determine, based on the new juxtaposition of ideas, what other thoughts do not earn their place, and delete them. Now I’m down to about 800 words and I still need to cut. The next round of cuts is done like a surgeon with
See BERNIE SIBEN, page 4
THE ZWEIG LETTER February 12, 2018, ISSUE 1235
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