Kevin McGrath / NoTrain-NoGain.org

If you’re like most newspaper writers, you face increasing demands to squeeze more information into less space. Often, this means going back and cutting your story or, worse, having someone else cut it for you just so it fits the page.

Given this reality, it makes sense to write shorter stories so that others can’t find flab in your work. You must invest more effort, but you’re more likely to produce a lively, tightly written story.

Understand, this is not a plea to write only 12-inch stories. I simply suggest that rather than ask yourself “How much space can I have?” you ask “How little space can I use?” Instead of 60 inches, can you write 40? Or 14 rather than 20? Not for the sake of shortness itself, but that you learn to make every word work hard.

The key to doing so is not cutting, but selecting.

Dumping your notebook on the screen and then slashing it to fit produces stories that look like they’ve been through a blender. But by selecting only the best material before you write, you stand a better chance of producing a story with impact whose every sentence sings.
That means you have two jobs: choosing a focus and writing tightly.

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