Usually, “short” content isn’t thorough. 

And “thorough” content isn’t short.

But there is a way to marry the two.

Below is my simple-not-easy process.

I’ve used it to write many VeryGoodCopy articles, especially in the beginning: 

One, commit to a final word count, say: 348 words.
Two, brain dump a 4X first draft: 1392 words.
Three, cut the first draft in half: 696 words.
Four, cut the second draft in half: 348 words.

Take it a sentence at a time, using these three questions to help guide your decisions:

1/ “Does this edit express the same idea, faster?”

If you can say the same thing in fewer words, you’ve made your writing better. 

A long time ago, Friedrich Nietzsche wrote: “It’s my ambition to say in ten sentences what others say in a whole book.”

Let this be your ambition, too. Fetishize brevity. 

2/ “Is this word absolutely necessary?”

Every syllable should be purposeful, needed to make your point or create imagery or conjure emotion. Anything else is fat. Trim it as though you’ll be paid an hour’s wage per word. 

“Writing is 1 percent inspiration,” said acting icon Louise Brooks, “and 99 percent elimination.” 

Be draconian, and your severity will be rewarded. 

3/ “Do I really like this?”

As a writer, you are also your work’s first reader. 

So you must pay attention to how you feel about this word or that sentence, and you must trust yourself when something sounds strange to you, off. You must key in on your emotions, your gut, because if it doesn’t move you, chances are it won’t move someone else. You must affect yourself first: 

“No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader,” said Rober Frost. “No surprise in the writer, no surprise in the reader.” 

This is true, of course. And it happens to be an excellent way to detect and omit needless passages.

Do it enough and this process will become second nature. 

It will. 

And automatically writing this way — short and thorough, concise — is an invaluable skill.

LEARN TO PERSUADE

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