What writers & others say
“Most speeches are like Texas longhorns — a point here, a point there, and a lot of bull in between.”
— Anonymous
“Editing is like reducing a good sauce.”
— Attendee in one of Ann Wylie’s writing classes
“synopsize: To condense the details of a boring, two-hour meeting into a briefer — yet still as boring — version.”
— BuzzWhack
“I believe more in the scissors than I do in the pencil.”
— Truman Capote, author of the first “nonfiction novel,” In Cold Blood
“Axe, cut, compress, condense, decrease, delete, drop, eliminate, eradicate, excise, hone, lop, pare, prune, reduce, remove, revise, rewrite, sharpen, slash, streamline, tighten, trim, whittle. … Two dozen words to remind us that we almost always write too many words.”
— Theodore A. Rees Cheney, author of Getting the Words Right: How to Revise, Edit, and Rewrite
“I like density, not volume.”
— Maureen Howard, American writer
“Formula: 2nd draft = 1st draft – 10%”
— Stephen King, prolific novelist, in On Writing
“The struggle is against words, words, words.”
— Samuel Menashe, New York poet
“Most writers, when ordered to write short, make the mistake of writing the garbage compactor story, compressing everything in the notebook into a hard, indigestible pellet of news.”
— Donald M. Murray, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author of Writing to Deadline
“The greatest artist is the simplifier.”
— Donald M. Murray, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author of Writing to Deadline
“[Editing] is trying to fit ten pounds of shite into a five-pound bag.”
— John Nolan, newspaper editor
“The wastebasket is a writer’s best friend.”
— Isaac Bashevis Singer, Nobel Prize-winning author
“There is but one art, to omit. Oh, if I knew how to omit I would ask no other knowledge. A man who knows how to omit would make an Iliad of a daily newspaper.”
— Robert Louis Stevenson, Scottish author
“Omit needless words.”
— William Strunk Jr., The Elements of Style
“Omit needless words.”
— Barry Newman, “King of the A-Hed” at the Wall Street Journal, editing Strunk and White
“The difference between a book that used to be 400 pages and is now 200 pages and a book that has always been 200 pages is that the other 200 pages are still there, only you can’t see them.”
— Elie Weisel, Nobel Peace Prize-winning novelist and political activist, quoted by Chip Scanlan in Chip on Your Shoulder
“I recall a classic critique of a two-line poem: ‘It’s nice, though there are dull stretches.’”
— Alan Weiss, principle, Summit Consulting
How can you reach all of your readers?
Read it and weep. More than half of all Americans have basic or below-basic reading skills, according to the DOE’s latest adult literacy test.
How well are you doing reaching these folks with your messages?
To reach all of your readers — regardless of their reading level — please join me at Rev Up Readability, — our clear-writing workshop, starting June 20.
You’ll learn to make every piece you write easier to read and understand. You’ll walk away with secrets you can use to reach more readers, measurably improve readability and sell concise writing to management. And you’ll learn to write messages that get more people to read your piece, read more of it, read it faster, understand it better and remember it longer.
Save up to $100 with our group discounts.
