Chapter 7. Writing Succinctly

Succinct writing takes practice, skill, and discipline. With practice, you get better and better at demanding that every syllable, word, phrase, sound, and image moves your story forward. With skill, you learn to identify blather, happy talk, redundancies, and tangents that don’t belong in the story. With discipline, you find the courage and strength to ruthlessly annihilate all but the most vital parts of your work. Some of the best writing of your career will die on the cutting room floor.

This chapter provides pointers on writing succinctly, including how to:

• Stay focused

• Distill content

• Eliminate excess

• Kill happy talk

• Stop hype