Tight writing

When I was in college, a professor wrote a promotional story for the college information office on a seminar for tight writing. My editor said his story was too long for our purposes, so she asked me to trim it.

I cut it from four and a half pages to a page and a half, and everyone had a laugh around the office (I kept a straight face, of course) — two thirds of a story on tight writing getting cut out.

Naturally, he hit the roof. Imagine, a student cutting my story! (He had a fit, but at least the story fit on the page now.)

Hey, write tight, and there's no problem.

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EMAIL: tgilli52@gmail.com  BLUESKY: PROFILE

MORE EDITOR@WORK BLOG ENTRIES

• You really DO need an editor

• Reminders for would-be novelists

• What I do when I'm editing

• What I charge (it's a deal) and what I edit

• Slogging through the Internet

• J-school: More eyes on your stories

• J-school: Go out and learn

• Rookie mistakes for magazine writers

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• Advice for be and would-be novelists

• Links to TG's stories online

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• What I do when I'm editing

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