American thriller writer Elmore Leonard came up with some brilliant advice for those wanting to write well: "Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip."
Effective, succinct writing is, however, far harder than it looks. Rattling on for 1,000 words across two sides of A4 is a breeze compared to crafting 100 carefully chosen words to fit a website page or ad space, especially if you want the concise version to say just as much.
The key is to focus on one or two main points that give a flavour of what you’re offering … enough to tempt your audience to get in touch to ask for more.
Of course, sometimes one or two words are enough: ‘Moat’ or ‘Duck House,’ for example, if you wanted to sum up this year’s politics. There, two words instead of 1,000. And if you had room for a whole 100, that’s still 98 left to play with!
Lesley Hussell
