Describe your project in 50 words.
In 150 words, tell us everything you can about your school, your town, your region, your state and your country. Make them count.
Outline in 75 words every single detail about how this five-year program will be managed.
Writing 'short' is seriously hard work. When you write 'long', words must be managed, planned, projected, plotted and massaged. When you write 'short', there is no substitute for precision. Why use four words when one word will do? Is that the best possible arrangement for that sentence? Is it still a sentence now that you've removed all the good stuff?
The key to writing short is, strangely, a plan. To me, it's even more important here than it is when wrangling 90,000 words into a novel. Dot points are your best friend. Write down everything that needs to go into your 50 words, even if you start with 500, and then cut, condense and carve them down, down, down. Like reducing a stock. All the ingredients, nuances and flavours must still be there, but in the most concentrated form.
Twitter, that much-berated water cooler of our time, is a fantastic place to hone short-form copy skills. If you can say it in 140 characters and still manage to insert personality and voice, you're well on the way.
Which is why I'm heading there right now (@altait if you want to say hi). I'm not procrastinating, you understand... just practising.
[image: cute ring from beautyspot/etsy]
oh i know that kind of writing... i have been writing 'statements of objectives' namely, all about yourself, why you want to be a scientist, why you're awesome .. in 1000 characters. oh it is so hard and so important..
ReplyDeleteOH what, no fun to win a trip in 25 words or less, but something for the school?? Geesh, we don't want for grant writers in Canberra, half the school is public service (they eat red tape for breakfast) & the other half is military (if you can say something in 5 words or less, that is always better than padding or fluff, even better to use acronyms!!)
ReplyDeleteGood luck, i hope it comes to you & aren't you glad you have back space & delete, imagine doing it on a typewriter!! Love Posie
I like this post. I have been trying my hand at flash fiction lately. I'm hoping it will help me to become more economical with words.
ReplyDeleteI love your fabulous justification of Twitter time!
x
Yup
ReplyDeleteCranky old man
Water cooler of our times indeed :)
ReplyDeleteYES! I've done lots of writing like this and you have NAILED it. 'Reducing stock'. Love it!!!
ReplyDeleteWords; words are beautiful. I've recently re-discovered a love of writing, but struggling to find my brain amongst years of flabby exercise.
ReplyDeleteExcept reducing stock is a crude way of making something smaller, what you are doing is more like pruning, where each cut is carefully made so as not to damage the whole.
ReplyDeleteI knew there was a point to the time I spent on Twitter. Other than feeding orphans and saving the world. Now I know.
ReplyDeleteAgreed. Writing short is VERY hard for me. I love words and just want to use as many of them as I can -- it only seems fair. When I first started using Twitter, I really hated it because of the word restriction thing but it does make me think about word choice more. Although, oddly, my blog posts have just gotten longer since I started tweeting. Compensation? Who knows.
ReplyDeleteDid you manage the bit where you had to "Outline in 75 words every single detail about how this five-year program will be managed" Seriously? because I think there should be an award for that.
ReplyDelete