The Power of Short Words

“You can go a long way on short words.”

– Joseph J. Romm

Short words. Hmm, I’m not sure how far I’ll travel then. I’ve been told I can be a bit verbose at times. And that sometimes, I use a lot of big words.

I guess that’s fair to say.

The Power of Short Words

There is something to be said for concise language, compact storytelling, and no wasted words to slow a story down. As much as I continually add to my African tale, one of the things I am doing when I edit 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. In that way, I add more informal words, cutting short the wandering philosophizing that I am wont to do. I think it shows, as the tale grows and morphs along the way.

It is a travel memoir after all, not some stuffy, dry textbook. Ultimately, I want people to not only read it, but enjoy the journey along with me once the story is published. In the interim, sometimes I feel like the language police are sitting on my shoulder, but the story is becoming more accessible and flowing better. It is a labour of love.

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