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Cutting out the fat is what makes good great
What’s your favorite part about writing?
Is it the drafting, when you jot your ideas and quickly form them together; or when you’re editing, that dull period when you realize that the 2 hours you spent writing half your stuff should be cut and condensed.
Probably the first.
Despite this though, there’s a lot of good about cutting the fat in that novel you’re writing, your routine, and otherwise in your life that actually helps make things easier.
Focus
When juggling everything you need to do in a day, doing it all at once only leads to burnout, right? What you thought would be easy has taken twice the amount of time, even simply writing.
When was the last you took a step back to think, “Is this really something I need to do?”
If it seems like the only way, could you try coming up with a better system using some free time over the weekend? Then if you can, every weekend you can try reiterating, just like you do in your writing process.
Often times it’s easier to focus when we got things put together ahead of time than when on the go.
“Good becomes great” — Rework
Even if you had an awesome-sounding sentence that you feel you could never take out, did you feel the same the next day?
Sometimes our perspective changes. Whether it’s about an idea or the what-not, knowing when to take time to look over our work can save both time and energy.
Then when you release that product, book, or simply do a to-do, even if it sounded just good before — then it becomes greater after that.
Better communication
Ever had a meeting at work where your team discussed everything to do from A-Z and then wondered where to start?
Cutting out the necessary stuff and getting right to the meat is what makes to-do’s easier to remember and process.
It’s so easy to feel like talking about what we personally want to rather than what our co-workers (or the audience reading our book) really need at that moment. Not just that, but often the takeaways we want to express are seen from another perspective and applied differently.
Simplicity rather than wordiness often nails the meaning of our words to what we exactly want to say, leading to less guesswork on the end receiver.
Takeaway
Writing doesn’t just having “writing” implications, cutting out the fat applies to our daily life, too.
To feel less stressed, communicate better, and focus more, taking out the wordiness or extra to-do’s will often do the trick. Though to make it fully applicable, a system — whether mentally planned or on paper, will help.