How I Rewrote an 8,000+ Character Article to Under 4,000

Recently, I worked on writing an article (it was really more of a critique). My rough draft was 8,291 characters. Unfortunately, the character limit was only 4,000. That included spaces and line returns.

In other words, I had a lot of pairing down that I needed to do. My first go-round took it down to 8,079 characters. Not nearly good enough. So, I began asking myself questions. Like, what is it that I’m trying to convey? What are just filler words? And, am I repeating myself?

Less is more

After asking myself what I was trying to convey, I realized that I was using a lot of words that were not necessary or could be replaced. For instance, I used the phrase, “I explained that…” When looking for words to cut, I knew I could have shortened those sixteen characters down to six, “I said…”

Going through my word cutting, I also realized that often times I could remove the words, “However,” and “Unfortunately,” from my repertoire. They didn’t necessarily add to what I was saying. And without them, it didn’t take away from it either. Those types of words are known as “filler” words. Just used to add to your word count. Filler words are often used in books and articles that require a certain word count. They help add to the count, but not necessarily to the context.

Contractions are your friend

When speaking, we typically use contractions. Outside of trying to stress a point, we typically contract the words we use. If you don’t remember, contractions are words or phrases that are shortened by removing some letters. I used one in the previous sentence. Don’t is the contraction of do not.

Not only is it normal to speak using contractions, but it actually reduces the character count as well. In the example of don’t, it actually made it one character shorter. Do Not is six characters (counting the space). By removing the space and the letter “o” it made it to four characters. However, in order to make it correct, we have to add the apostrophe to indicate that some letters are missing.

One character by itself won’t make a big difference. However, if we do that throughout the entire document, it really adds up. We contract words like cannot, I am, that is, they are, there is, a is not (ain’t), and many others. Okay, ain’t might not be a word, but I bet if you said it others will know what you’re talking about. That’s how all words make their way into the dictionary. Like “bling.”

Closely related, also try using the numerical number rather than writing it out (i.e., write 1, not one, 7, not seven, 25, not twenty-five, etc.).

Repetition is a killer

If you’ve said something, there’s no need to say it again in a different way. As I was reading through the words, I realized that I had repeated myself (using different words) a couple of times. A good example is when you might hear someone say (or read their words), “like I said…” or “as stated above…” and then go on to say what they previously said.

Removing repeat phrases or sentences takes several unneeded characters away from the article. When I removed the phrases previously used, it helped to shorten my article. See how I repeated myself? It’s easier to do than you might think.

Conclusion

By being precise and careful with your selection of words and phrases. Using contractions whenever possible. And by not repeating yourself, one is able to reduce the unnecessary characters in any writing. I know, that many people write to get as many words as possible (thereby adding several filler words).

But if you’d like to shorten it, try these three things on for size.

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