The Power of Short Words

“You can go a long way on short words.” – Joseph J. Romm

Short words. Well then, I’m not sure how far I’ll go. I think it’s safe to safe that I can be a bit verbose at times.

Yes, I do carry on…

But there is something to be said for concise language, compact storytelling and no wasted words to slow the story down. As much as I continually add to my African tale, one of the things I am doing in the editing of the story is to make it more precise. I am cutting plenty of ‘tell’ and adding in more dialogue to ‘show’ what’s going on. I’m adding more informal words and in that way, cutting the wandering philosophizing that I am wont to do. It is a travel memoir after all, and as such doesn’t need to come off like a dry textbook. Sometimes I feel like the language police are sitting on my shoulder, but the story is becoming more accessible and flowing better.

So instead of procrastinating any longer, perhaps I will get to the perennial task at hand. To Africa I go, to edit…