2007 Books #41: The 10% Solution, by Ken Rand
I hereby declare this book to be the most useful one I read all year. It briefly gives clear directions for cutting 10% of the words from your prose, systematically, so that the writing improves in clarity and accuracy. I tested the process on my latest short story, and in less than 24 hours I painlessly removed over 600 words from a 5,200-word story without changing the meaning of it, which math-enabled people will notice is a reduction of *more* than 10%. I believe that the result is a better story, too.
(I hope that one day there won't be so much fluff in my stories in the first place, but until then, I'll take the editing system and run with it.)
(I hope that one day there won't be so much fluff in my stories in the first place, but until then, I'll take the editing system and run with it.)