RULE #1:

Eliminate restatements (unless there’s good cause)

 

RULE #2:

Stop at the top of the mountain

• No plateauing, no slow “leaks” of energy

• True of sentences, paragraphs, sections

 

RULE #3:

Keep looking for better language

• Circle obvious or familiar words or phrases and find fresher, more vivid replacements

• Beware descriptors of emotion or diagnoses  (“Show, don’t tell”)

• The struggle for better language can open new discovery

 

RULE #4:

It’s always too long.

• Cut too much and see what you miss. 

• Trick: use a highlighter, and make a version that has only what you've highlighted. See what, if anything, you miss. (You can always put it back in.)

 

RULE #5:

Make two kinds of cuts...

• Pare away at language within a sentence

• Cut (or compress) entire sentences, paragraphs, or sections

 

Another way of thinking about this...

Can a section become a paragraph?

Can a paragraph become a sentence?

Can a sentence become a phrase?

Can a phrase become a word?

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RULE #6:

Read what you've written out loud and see if the voice is true to you.

 

RULE #7:

You’ve cut and compressed; what else do you want to say NOW?

• Having revised your work, look at it with fresh eyes and ask where else the piece could go.

• Switch from Editing mode back to Generative mode; start writing and go as far as you can.