Writing Excuses

Writing Excuses 7.4: Brevity

Jan 23, 2012
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ADVICE

Begin At The Change Point

  • Start your story as close to the change point or inciting incident as possible to avoid unnecessary setup.
  • Cut opening chapters if they don't immediately drive the central change.
ADVICE

Make Characters And Locations Pull Double Duty

  • Combine character functions and locations so each addition earns its word count and avoids bloat.
  • Merge redundant characters and cut unnecessary scenic travel when aiming for concision.
ADVICE

Prune Filler And Compress Ideas

  • Remove filler language and compress paragraphs into single multifunctional lines during revision.
  • Combine or drop superfluous ideas so dialogue and narration carry only essential information.
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