The Power of Words.Too much stuff

11/26/97
When there's too much stuff

       It's a problem every writer wishes he had -- simply having too much good stuff. But it's still a problem. Here's some ideas offered by a group of Journal-Bulletin writers:
       Make choices. What's the best of the best?
       Ask yourself if it's something "you'' would want to read.
       Write it all out first. Often, the process will make it clear what is essential and what can go.
       Think sidebar or breakout. Try to break it down into pieces. A list of highlights or other points with bullets at the end or as a sidebar can deal with a lot of information quickly. Everything doesn't have to be a standard story.
       Write it for radio. Condense the story to three short sentences. Check all your material against those sentences. If it doesn't match, chuck it.
       Weigh every quote. They may be wonderful, but they're seldom the art of the story.
       Build a key word index of the story: Use the word processor to take key words from each paragraph and list them. The resulting list -- a snapshot or road map of the story -- can be an effective tool for talking through issues and save time hunting through pages or scrolling through pages of text.
       Go off with an editor to a room and read the draft aloud. This breaks the ice and gets both your minds focused on the issues at hand. Read a little bit, and then stop for discussion about what's working and what's not working. Then read a little more. Very often, the writer can answer all of an editor's questions through this exercise. Meanwhile, this is a great way for an editor to help a writer come to personal discovery about how a story can be improved. Is it time consuming? If there are serious structural or conceptual issues, it is a time saver.
       Think of favorite authors who write with a spare style: Ernest Hemingway, E.B. White, Jamaica Kincaid. It's consoling and liberating. Then ask yourself, what does it all boil down to? Set aside the jokes and the overtly emotional elements and look for the skeleton. It should have power.

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