My Favorite Writing Hack: Less is More

As a teacher of gifted children, I often find myself seeking strategies for students who already excel in writing. What can I offer that would teach them to strengthen their craft in ways they might not consider? Some of my students are exceptionally talented; I could easily take notes and learn from THEIR craft. What could I possibly add to their skill set?

One answer to that question lay within my own writing journey. I remember high school, back to the first time I ever made meaningful, purposeful improvement as a writer. That progress ranged across genres: poetry, creative writing, journaling, and, of course…the dreaded essay. If I could capture what it was about that time, the skills I actually learned back then, I could unlock new ideas for my own writing instruction.

The biggest leap was the degree to which my writing tightened. My language became more concise, more powerful. That’s when I realized that my power wasn’t in my writing. It was in my rewriting. And the single-most powerful tool I have for making my writing stronger? OMISSION. When I remove everything that isn’t important or powerful enough to stay, I do myself – and my readers! – two favors:

• Well-chosen, clear writing is more likely to make sense.
• If I say more with less, people are more likely to read.

I now consider omission to be my writing superpower. It’s how I craft everything: poetry, emails, even this very article here. (Even that last sentence! It’s about half as long as when I started.)

So how does that look with students? I’ll share my methods in the hope that some of you folks out there find something interesting, useful, or worth trying.

My lesson began with a demonstration of how I go about paring my writing down. I showed a poem draft, then talked through line by line which words I could omit or strengthen. As the poem went on, students had their own ideas of how to trim it down. I’ll admit: the old and the new were night and day!

As a group, we discussed the words and phrases least likely to pull their weight. Our main areas of focus:

• Removing top offenders: “The,” “And,” “That”
• Trimming adverbs: very, really, completely…
• Verb tense: pay attention to tense, helping verbs
• The power of lists, commas

After that, I asked my kids to think of a particular piece (I allowed for any genre) they felt could use the benefit of omission. The kids partnered up to have at it.

The real test, however, is in the power of the students’ writing. My students did NOT disappoint. Below I’m sharing two examples of student work. The black text is the first draft, and the bolded purple is the new, streamlined text developed collaboratively with a trusted reader. 

How about you? Have you taken the skill of omission and “given it a go,” either in your own writing, or with your students? What have been your favorite strategies? Leave a comment below and share your wisdom with our community.