Great advice. I'm in an Episcopal lay preacher training class (ends tomorrow). We are to craft and preach sermons that last as close to 9 minutes as we can get them. My first draft is always way too long and I always have to cut the fat. It really helps.
The first time I let a professional writer look at my piece, she handed it back to me saying, “Cut the first third.” It was painful but she was right. The first 1/3 was the lead in that got me to the story.
Great advice. I'm in an Episcopal lay preacher training class (ends tomorrow). We are to craft and preach sermons that last as close to 9 minutes as we can get them. My first draft is always way too long and I always have to cut the fat. It really helps.
Good luck! :)
The first time I let a professional writer look at my piece, she handed it back to me saying, “Cut the first third.” It was painful but she was right. The first 1/3 was the lead in that got me to the story.
Ah yes, a common experience for many of us.
Cutting the fat is where the altar of your ego catches fire.
You’ll swear that one sentence is holy scripture. You’ll fight to keep it.
But if it doesn’t move the story, it’s just incense smoke—smells nice, chokes the room.
Mystics know this. The vision isn’t in the extra words, it’s in the space you didn’t fill.
Trim until the thing can stand naked and still be beautiful.