Today’s formula is literally a formula. It comes from Stephen King’s book On Writing – kinda raw, but it has lots of good tips, including this one:
Final draft = first draft – 10%
Meaning: your final draft should have fewer words than your first draft.
Here’s an exercise: Take your final draft, and shorten each sentence by a word or two. See if you can trim without losing any meaning. It will make your remaining words stronger.
Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, said “When words are many, sin is not absent.” (Proverbs 10:19)
A lot of good writers started off as reporters – Mark Twain, Ernest Hemingway, etc. Journalism forces you to cut the fat out of your writing so you’re just left with the meat. Each remaining word has more meaning and punch. Check out the lead sentence of Hemingway’s book The Old Man and the Sea:
He was an old man who fished alone in a skiff in the Gulf Stream and he’d gone eight-four days now without taking a fish.
No wasted adjectives or adverbs. Just good, tight writing that incorporates most, if not all, of the 5 Ws and the H (who, what, when, where, why and how).
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