Kay Kennedy travels in a Class-C motorhome with her husband, Joe. They have been full-timers since 1992 and have traveled in Canada, parts of Mexico, and in every state except Alaska, North and South Carolina. Her articles have appeared in Business, Interior Design, Senior and RVing magazines and she is author of two books, the most recent: Portable Writing: the Secret to Living Your Dreams with 25 Projects to Fund Your Freedom. Visit her Web site at: www.kennedyk.com.
Tuesday, December 19, 2006
Kay Kennedy travels in a Class-C motorhome with her husband, Joe. They have been full-timers since 1992 and have traveled in Canada, parts of Mexico, and in every state except Alaska, North and South Carolina. Her articles have appeared in Business, Interior Design, Senior and RVing magazines and she is author of two books, the most recent: Portable Writing: the Secret to Living Your Dreams with 25 Projects to Fund Your Freedom. Visit her Web site at: www.kennedyk.com.
Thursday, December 14, 2006
MEETING WORD COUNT GOALS
One of the scariest things writers hear is that they’ve got an assignment, but the article must be no more than 1000 words—or whatever number is required. My first assignment absolutely paralyzed me for days. I was pretty sure I could never limit myself to 1000 words.
Finally, I just started writing. First I outlined the article, listing points I wanted to cover. I’m pretty sure the outline numbered around 1000 words. Never mind that it didn’t contain complete sentences!
Then I wrote the article, covering everything listed in the outline. When I thought I was finished, the computer’s word count was a whopping 1600 words. Hey, it sounded great to me! How could I cut the fabulous masterpiece that I had given birth to, and nurtured to maturity? Okay, so maybe it was a morbidly obese piece!
Since I knew 1600 words would never fly, I had to figure out a way to strip the article down to its bare bones.
As I read the article, I spotted areas where I used extra words to say things that could have been put more simply. Then I noticed sentences that didn’t appear to be all that important, so I eliminated them. Next I spotted some connecting words like the, that, of, by, and for that weren’t necessary for the article to be understood.
Example: The book that I am carrying is so heavy that I think that I might drop it. The word that isn’t needed anywhere in this sentence. You wouldn’t use it if you were saying the sentence out loud, would you? What a tongue-twister! And I'm is less formal and stilted than I am. Change the sentence to read: The book I ‘m carrying is so heavy I think I might drop it. You can eliminate more words by saying: The book I’m carrying is so heavy I might drop it. What does the word think do for the sentence? It’s not necessary.
If you still need to get rid of a few words, look at the above sentence again. Do readers really care whether you might drop it, or that you might have to hand it to someone else to carry for you? Do you even need to explain that you are carrying it? Why not say This book is really heavy! Now you’ve cut 11 words! That might not seem like much against the 600 you may need to cut, but it’s still a start.
You’ll probably find several sentences like the one above that can be shortened without losing the meaning. Once you’ve gotten rid of all the obvious excess words and sentences, read the article out loud. Does it read well? Does it flow? You may notice some areas that need to be reworded to make the message sharper, clearer. While you’re doing that, you will probably eliminate more words.
Your final copy will have much more vitality, which will make it more interesting to readers. Maybe you will have eliminated a sentence or paragraph that you thought you couldn’t do without and that you ache for--like an only child who's moved away—but your readers won’t know the difference. And your editor will be grateful that you turned in an article that tells the story, yet sticks to the word count that was assigned.
One of the scariest things writers hear is that they’ve got an assignment, but the article must be no more than 1000 words—or whatever number is required. My first assignment absolutely paralyzed me for days. I was pretty sure I could never limit myself to 1000 words.
Finally, I just started writing. First I outlined the article, listing points I wanted to cover. I’m pretty sure the outline numbered around 1000 words. Never mind that it didn’t contain complete sentences!
Then I wrote the article, covering everything listed in the outline. When I thought I was finished, the computer’s word count was a whopping 1600 words. Hey, it sounded great to me! How could I cut the fabulous masterpiece that I had given birth to, and nurtured to maturity? Okay, so maybe it was a morbidly obese piece!
Since I knew 1600 words would never fly, I had to figure out a way to strip the article down to its bare bones.
As I read the article, I spotted areas where I used extra words to say things that could have been put more simply. Then I noticed sentences that didn’t appear to be all that important, so I eliminated them. Next I spotted some connecting words like the, that, of, by, and for that weren’t necessary for the article to be understood.
Example: The book that I am carrying is so heavy that I think that I might drop it. The word that isn’t needed anywhere in this sentence. You wouldn’t use it if you were saying the sentence out loud, would you? What a tongue-twister! And I'm is less formal and stilted than I am. Change the sentence to read: The book I ‘m carrying is so heavy I think I might drop it. You can eliminate more words by saying: The book I’m carrying is so heavy I might drop it. What does the word think do for the sentence? It’s not necessary.
If you still need to get rid of a few words, look at the above sentence again. Do readers really care whether you might drop it, or that you might have to hand it to someone else to carry for you? Do you even need to explain that you are carrying it? Why not say This book is really heavy! Now you’ve cut 11 words! That might not seem like much against the 600 you may need to cut, but it’s still a start.
You’ll probably find several sentences like the one above that can be shortened without losing the meaning. Once you’ve gotten rid of all the obvious excess words and sentences, read the article out loud. Does it read well? Does it flow? You may notice some areas that need to be reworded to make the message sharper, clearer. While you’re doing that, you will probably eliminate more words.
Your final copy will have much more vitality, which will make it more interesting to readers. Maybe you will have eliminated a sentence or paragraph that you thought you couldn’t do without and that you ache for--like an only child who's moved away—but your readers won’t know the difference. And your editor will be grateful that you turned in an article that tells the story, yet sticks to the word count that was assigned.
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