A Method to Help Break Bad Writing Habits: DEEP Cuts!

Have you ever found yourself "over-flowering" your writing? This could be in fiction, in copy, in essays, whatever. One temptation writers face is to write more--to create interesting little linguistic constructs that are flowery, clever, or even poetic.

However, this can sometimes develop into a bad habit of drawing things out and adding a lot of unnecessary words.

One thing that I sometimes do as an exercise is to look for everything that is not strictly necessary and see what remains if I cut it all out. Sometimes I find that passages that are wordy and might even flow well gain impact when pared down to the absolute minimum.

This isn't to say that I incorporate all of these hard cuts into my next draft (nor should you), but sometimes looking at writing with the express purpose of cutting all fluff can help you see where you  spend too much time looking nice and not enough making your point.

This is also valuable as an exercise to get yourself out of the habit of wordiness. Write something, then cut the hell out of it. See what's left. Does it still get your point across?

As writers, we want to show off our abilities, but sometimes negative feedback is good. A shorter piece with all the persuasive bits still there but all the excess words removed might end up more persuasive through its brevity.

Another thing that this method can help root out is repetition. If something is said two or three times, cutting it down only to the most impactful example might be better. Plus, it helps to practice judging your writing as harshly as possible, and this exercise helps you flex that muscle.

In the video above, I also talk about a book I'm currently reading, called Social Justice and the Indian Rope Trick, by Anthony de Jasay. I find Jasay's persuasiveness suffers because of his highly oblique style, and give a concrete example.

In short, give this technique a try and see how much time and energy you're spending on meat versus flowers. You will learn something, and might even find a bad habit or two to break.