Eschew Obuscation, and Other Good Writing Advice

"Get Rid of Ugly Wordiness: How to Cut Your Novel Down to Size"
Poe War (June 2, 2008)

"When a writer contacted me to edit his 164,000 word novel, I told him publishers don’t like books that long. We discussed the possibility of breaking the novel into two separate stories. However, when I read the manuscript, I realized the word count could be cut dramatically. He was appalled at the thought-he’d worked hard on every one of those words, and he knew each one had to be there.

"We agreed to experiment with the first chapter. Although I usually use Track Changes to show my suggestions, we decided I would send him a clean copy with all my recommended changes incorporated. If he thought cutting words destroyed his story, we would start over.

"He called me after he read the revised first chapter. 'I thought you were going to cut it down. Everything is still there.' ..."

The rest of the article discusses four points that are good advice for any work of fiction, and most writing.