Today's goal: take an essay that clocks in with 6,333 words and hack at it until there are fewer than 5,000 words. (i.e., 4,999)
It's a strange and lonely process: sure, there are some words that need to go, especially when you're as wordy a writer as I am. But others? The private pain of self-destruction!
So far I am down to 5,551--better than half-way. The bad news, of course, is that the obvious fat is trimmed away and in the trash.
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2 comments:
If worst comes to worst, you could start omitting articles and other words that people should be able to figure out.
Or you could use a trick I saw in Hebrew the other day: Hyphenate arbitrary words. If you're using lots of jargon, this could be even more fun. (For example, "The-Other".)
Hopefully, you have better ways to cut words, before you have to resort to this.
Those are excellent suggestions! And silly me, I had always thought that missing words were mistakes.
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