Prose that sings

5 steps to sharpen your writing

Like most writers, I have an eccentric resume.

Upon hearing about yet another unexpected day job, people’s eyes widen.
“You did what now?”

For example, a little over ten years ago, I accepted a position as editor of an auction house catalogue. With my art history degree, this is logical. However, this house sold classic cars. Screamingly expensive and rare ones.

In my brief yet glamorous car era, at an event near our sale. We were not selling this car, otherwise I would never have dared touch it.

Far from being a car expert, I spent a solid chunk of my childhood listening to my father and brother blabbing about them. My brother went on to co-host a television series on the topic, so I wasn’t going in cold.

I stepped in to manage a team of writers who churned out car descriptions to a specified word count. These articles had to be enticing, accurate, and concise. More often than not, the team wheedled me to let them have extra space for information they believed a potential buyer simply couldn’t live without.

When one year a catalogue bloated to doorstop thickness, the design department came to my rescue. A new layout allowed only about half the words per car, and I was in charge of cuts.

Given that classic car experts are on the extreme end of old dogs uninterested in new tricks, I spent the following months pruning texts without sacrificing meaning.

While it’s unlikely I’ll ever end up with a vintage Ferrari¹, I am forever grateful to this job for helping me learn how to prune prose. The resulting text was always sharper and more convincing.

Here are the guidelines I created to get there: