Subtract by Leidy Klotz

Author:Leidy Klotz [Klotz, Leidy]
Language: eng
Format: epub

* * *

One of my attempts at noticeable less is on the cover of this book. I hope the downward sloping line reminds you of the persistent subtraction that can take you from satisficed all the way to noticeable less. Because the design is mostly the work of a professional cover designer, I also hope it reminds you that noticeable less often requires asking for help.

Figure 10: Noticeable less (with the help of an editor)

There’s no shame in getting a second opinion. When we create something, whether a window cut through limestone, a Darkness outtake, or a paragraph, it’s natural to be attached to the work we’ve already done. Even if our prior work is irrelevant to the decision at hand, getting rid of it makes us feel like we’ve wasted the effort used to get there. This is why, when my team asked participants to improve their own writing, they were even less likely to subtract words than when the writing was someone else’s. Rare are the Courtneys who can send Harvard a haiku.

The rest of us benefit from help, ideally from someone with little attachment to our prior work, and maybe even someone who is professionally better at finding less. Ernest Hemingway worked with Max Perkins, an editor who also harnessed the brilliance of F. Scott Fitzgerald, Thomas Wolfe, and Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings. The Strunk and White pairing worked because White was an editor.

Most everything we pay to read benefits from editors finding the less we can’t get to on our own. Even after I put every word of this book on trial for its life, an editor read tens of thousands more of my words than you are reading here. I can assure you that your experience is better because I got help.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.