As the editor of a corporate newsletter, I was once tasked with collecting, reviewing (and sometimes rewriting) content submitted by internal employees. One particular story caught my interest: a 14-year-old boy was embarking on a summer-long canoe trip, all on his own, to raise awareness and money for cancer research. It was a nice, feel-good story.
When I hit the half-way mark, however, the writer took a turn. Out of nowhere, one sentence stood out: on one of his previous travels, the boy had experienced a near-death situation.
Wow! My interest was piqued. What happened? Why was this guy still going ahead with his trip? Was he scared to get back in a canoe? What precautions would he take this time around?
But the writer took no time to elaborate on said situation. Instead, he proceeded to write about what the boy was planning to eat en-route.
Perhaps the writer didn’t see the near-death experience as important, but I certainly thought it was. In fact, it would have made the story all the more compelling.
Let’s put it this way: if this story had been written differently, it could have been a front-page story in a newspaper. The original, by contrast, would probably have been buried – page 3, at best.
Broadly speaking, omitting particular details in your writing can mean the difference between can’t-miss-it and can’t-find-it. (That being said, one should never misinterpret this as approval for being overly wordy.)
The challenge is in making every word count: providing just the right amount of information—interesting information, that is—and holding your reader’s attention long enough so they want to read it to the very end.
After all, that’s what makes a good fictional story. Shouldn’t the same be said for stories about the people around us?
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