Five Ways To Cut Your Word Count
Sunday August 17, 2008
I recently had the privilege of editing a beautiful piece for a local magazine, but I was charged with cutting down the word count. I gathered my experiences and some further research into these five ways to cut your word count. Being able to cut down word count without sacrificing the message is a good talent to cultivate. Please feel free to add your hints in the comments!
Comments
I completely agree about the quotes — paraphrasing can be a lifesaver. I also find that if I go back to edit, I’ll find that I’m saying things in five words that can be said in two - you know? I recently had to cut 300 words from a story and I did it without cutting any of the meat, simply by taking a few words out of every few sentences. . .
This is a timely article for me. I am faced with the challenge of editing the 10,000 word transcript of an interview into a 2,000 word article.