Paring It Down

If you’ve read this blog for a while, you know I’m a fan of brevity. For me, years of writing for daily news consumption have made this second nature.

When I train reporters, I ask them to start each story by making the point of that story in a single sentence. In news, with few exceptions, every second or column inch counts. The listener or reader expects you to get to the point.

No matter what your line of work, paring down your copy will almost always make it more effective. So I’ve got a suggestion that, while it might seem silly at first, can help get you into the trim-and-tighten mindset.

Just before Christmas, one of my favorite independent bookstores in Boise posted this YouTube video of Six-Word Book Reviews. It reminded me of the old news adage that any story can be summarized in a single sentence.

Apparently, this also applies to novels! There are multiple sites online where people have fun paring the plots of famous books down to a single thought, sentence or paragraph. This older HuffPost blog by Pamela Redmond Satran is a great example.

Whenever you’re staring at a blank page and don’t know how to start, simply state the point you want to make – in as few words as possible – and you’re on your way.

I also instruct reporters to write the story and then, sentence by sentence, chide themselves a bit – ‘Could Chris say this in fewer words?’ If so, start trimming.

(Photo credit: Suzy Hazelwood/Pexels)