The 8 Rules of Ruthless Editing from David Mamet

No one wants to write dull, lifeless copy that lulls even the most hyper people to sleep. Certainly not you, right? But why do we find it so hard to write what we want to say in the least amount of words — and still maintain potency?

It’s not easy because we tend to fall in love with what we write. We fear cutting out anything important. No matter how dead it is.

But how do we distinguish between the living words and the dead words? How do we identify the enticing sentences from the repulsive ones? It’s almost like we need …read more