Editor's note: Michael's back with another Bitmob Writing Challenge, and this one is even more devious than the last. Fancy yourself a wordsmith? Then trim that 500-word review of Bioshock 2 down to 25, and submit it to Michael. No problem...right? -James
Following the success of On the Contrary, I've decided to present the Bitmob community with another challenge designed to test and hone your writing and editing skills. Like the last one, I based The Final Cut on an exercise I went through in college that really helped me improve as a writer. It's a difficult test -- one that many of you won't be used to -- but I'm curious to see what you do with it.
The Problem
I'll be perfectly honest here: Most Web writing is garbage. People have a tendency to write pieces that are much longer than they need to be. This misses the point of the Internet entirely. The Internet is a fast-paced environment; if your readers aren't hooked within the first 200 characters, they'll often go somewhere else to get what they need. If you want people to finish reading what you write, you need to be aware of the constraints of reduced attention spans and adapt your writing accordingly.
The main constraint is length. We perceived space on the Internet to be unlimited, so naturally, we often use as much space as we please when we self-publish articles. But when we overwrite, what we're really doing is writing for ourselves, not for the reader. Whether instructional or expressive, writing for the reader should be the goal of any professional communicator.
This is how you should treat your writing. Be merciless in your cuts.
The Exercise
The imposed, limited word counts of this exercise will help you rein in your writing. First, write a 500-word review for a game of your choice, taking care to stay as close to the word count as possible. Then, rewrite that review, cutting it down to 250 words and keeping only the core ideas. Then, take that version and cut it to 100 words, boiling off the fat to reveal the lean, juicy meat of your piece.
Finally, cut that piece down to a single sentence that summarizes the game in the best way possible.
I know that a lot of people balk at word counts, or the idea that a game can be fully captured in one sentence. Guess what? Most employers will impose word counts on you, especially if you enter the print industry. Sometimes, all you'll have is a sentence to get your point across. It's happened to me in my career, and I guarantee it'll happen to you. If you're unable to distill your writing down to an acceptable level, they'll hire somebody else. One look around the Bitmob community should convince you that writers eager for a shot at a paid position are not in short supply.
The goal of this exercise is to help you with your own writing and editing by forcing you to cut extraneous material. You'll also learn to adapt your writing to fit your thoughts into smaller word counts, which is one of the most important skills a professional writer can have.
The Directions
- Pick any game, and write a 500-word review of it. This should be a full review of publishable quality, not something you overwrote just so you could easily trim it later. Be honest.
- Rewrite the review, cutting it down to 250 words.
- Rewrite that review, cutting it down to 100 words.
- Rewrite that review, shortening it to a single sentence -- ideally 25 words or less.
- Bundle all of your pieces into one blog entry and post them with the tag the final cut. Be sure to include the word counts for each piece.
Entries are due February 28th at Midnight PST. If you have any questions, leave a comment. I look forward to seeing how you all fare, and I'll be posting my own example within the week to get the ball rolling.
Comments (15)
When I'm writing (and that's my job) I hammer down every single thought that occurs, then improve it (50% cut), then rearrange into the now-visible structure (30% cut), then rewrite until I think everything remaining is great (20% cut) and THEN cut 20% more. Because every single second online you are battling against porn and cat videos and there's no such thing as "good enough".
A single weak word loses you huge chunks of audience - one bad sentence means there's no-one left.
And if you say you'd love to but have no time? That's another test to see if you'll ever write, and you're failing.
I personally don't like the 'slash and burn' style of writing so I won't be doing this challenge. I understand it works for some people and it's considered the acceptable norm among journalists in general and internet writers specifically but to act like their is no way to get an audience without adhereing to it is absurd. To be a writer you need to find A audience. You don't have to appeal to All audiences. I personally wouldn't want the attention of someone who is out scouting for cat videos and porn because i'd rather catch them when they are in the mood for more in depth fare.
I suppose that makes me not mainstream.....Good.
I may have a shot at this, but not sure I want to put myself through this again.
If you're writing for yourself, go ahead. Write a 2000 word treatise on No Russian. More power to you. If you can find one person to read it, hey, you succeed.
If you're looking to go pro, then this exercise is the sort of thing you should be looking into perfecting. If you're looking to go pro and can't find the time for something like this... well, like Luke said.
