Are you unclear on what the instruction “write tight” means? Writers are often instructed to write tight, however, an explanation of how to hone this skill often seems evasive. Perhaps the best definition of tightening an article is “cut it to the bone”. Eliminate the excess; eliminate the unnecessary.

Recognize and Eliminate Fluff and Redundancy

We sometimes go for overkill when writing descriptions. The dark blue suit could just as easily have been described as navy or indigo. The lady may have looked very smart in it, but neither the meaning of the sentence, nor the image given the reader will change if the word “very” is dropped.

Is “that” necessary? Most likely, it is not. Take notice of how many people use the word “that” in conversation, as well as in their writing. Does its inclusion enhance the sentence? See how many unnecessary words that you can remove from this very lengthy sentence that I am writing. Stop and read the last sentence over again. You could cut as many as 7 words. Three of them are “that” or “very”. None of them enhance the sentence in any way. Nor were they pointed out as errors in a spelling and grammar check. The end result would be, “See how many unnecessary words you can remove from this sentence.” You could also change the form of the sentence to eliminate an additional word, “How many unnecessary words can you remove from this sentence?” Hone this skill and meeting word count will become an easier process.

Avoid repeating yourself. One person wrote about a friend who was in a tight bind. Choose your preference. The friend was in a tight or he was in a bind. Stating he was in a tight bind is saying the same thing twice. It is repetitive. Mm hmm; did you catch my repetition in this paragraph?

Repetition may appear in the same paragraph or it may show up elsewhere in the article. If your article began with the fact you had a flat tire on your lawnmower and you are going to get it fixed, there is no need in saying, “I pulled up at the tire shop where I was getting my lawnmower tire fixed”, later in the article. That sentence could end with the word shop and the reader would still know why you are there.

Cutting Content and Finding Focus

You have cut individual words, possibly a sentence or two, but you must now take your job of cutting excess one step further. Look deeper and delve into the content, the meat of the article. When cutting content, you must first determine the focus of your article. With that determination, the writer has a goal in sight and should find it easier to fine tune the article to meet that goal.

Read over your work. Perhaps you have a paragraph that sounds great. You would like to leave it, but after re-reading the paragraph you cannot find any support toward the focus of the article. Still, the flow is good. It’s a good piece of material and interesting to boot. You have one choice. Omit it. Whine, if you must, but get rid of it. Perhaps you can use it as the focus in another article. It has no place in this one.

The following example may be helpful in learning to find your focus. Imagine writing an article on the subject of cats and types of food to feed the kitten, the grown cat and the mature cat. There is no need for a paragraph giving the kitten’s paternal pedigree, however impressive it may be. However, as we all know, there are exceptions to every rule. In this instance, an exception might be considered on pedigree inclusion provided one is writing about a famous cat and several generations of his family that have been fed a particular product which has proven long term benefits.

If you are writing an article focusing on the environment and the toll garbage is taking, it may be more effective if you leave in the portion about the new disposal system the local landfill is utilizing and omit the gripe session on the bad habit Garry’s Garbage Disposal has developed, being late on his route each week.

Keep in mind that every paragraph should lend something essential toward the focus. It should support the focus. If it does not, ask yourself why the paragraph is there. If your goal is tight writing, there is no place for redundancy. Trim all that is unnecessary. If you must add to an article to reach desired word count, be sure you are adding meat, not fluff. Write tight. Cut it to the bone.

Writing Excercises

Writing exercises are a good tool to help one hone their skills. The following exercises are great for helping a writer determine which words serve no useful purpose in a sentence or paragraph.

• Select a subject and write a descriptive paragraph. Once the paragraph is written, go over it word for word, marking out any unnecessary words. Run a word count on the unrevised paragraph and another after revision. You may be amazed at the difference.

• Read newspaper or magazine articles in search of unnecessary words and content. Take one paragraph from the article and see if you can improve it. There may be no excess. You may not be able to improve it. Even so, if you pay close attention to how other writers keep their words and descriptions down to size, it will soon be second nature for you to do the same.