Learning to Write Concisely
Some authors write long pieces, and when they get to the end, they realize they could benefit from learning to write more concisely. Other authors (like me) write very sparsely to begin with (and wind up having to flesh some things out during revisions).
If you’re more in the former camp than the latter, here are a few of my own suggestions to learning to write concisely.
Practice writing small: If you typically write novels or longer short stories, try your hand at something much smaller. Flash fiction is a great way to learn to write concisely, and if you want to try this on an even harder mode, look at microfiction, drabbles, or poetry. Learning how to keep your writing within a specific word count is a fantastic way to learn what details you can cut or skimp on. Poetry helps you find single words or short phrases that can encapsulate far more than their word count might suggest. (A thesaurus or a site like Panlexicon are some of my go-to tools when writing poetry, both for meter and word choice.)
Go over your writing with a fine-toothed comb: Once you’ve finished writing a piece, take a close look at it for things like overused words or phrases, unnecessary words or phrases, and excessive description. When you find the overused or unnecessary words and phrases, make a list–odds are these are words and phrases you use frequently in your writing. (For me, it’s the word “that,” could/would/should, and “hedging” words like “kind of” or “likely”.) When it comes to description, try removing any details that aren’t immediately pertinent to the plot of your story. You might decide to fill some back in later, but try to strip it down to as sparse as possible first, and then carefully add pieces back in.
If you’re more in the sparse writing camp, these tips can still help you to write more concisely, even if you wind up needing to add more to your pieces later. But that’s a post for another day!
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