Learning to write short

My first editor, at a small magazine that no longer exists, cut my favourite paragraph from my first published essay. I argued for a week. She did not reply to the arguments; she only sent back the piece, a little shorter, a little better.

It took me two years to understand that the paragraph was my favourite because it was about me, not the reader. Writing short is not about fewer words. It is about fewer words that are only there to be admired.

I still keep a file of cut paragraphs. I have never once used one.

Lena · 17 February 2019, Lisbon