Brevity a worthy goal for amateurs and pros alike

Working in the arena of publishing, I am reminded almost daily of one of my favorite quotes: “I'm sorry this letter is so long. I didn't have time to make it shorter.”

I first heard the quote from a college professor way too many years ago who attributed it to James Boswell writing to Dr. Samuel Johnson, the subject of his famous biography, “Life of Johnson.” I have since heard it attributed to George Bernard Shaw, Mark Twain and even Voltaire, but regardless of who actually gets the credit, the comment is particularly poignant for newspaper writers because the two great pressures constantly shaping our work are space and time.

Our reporters constantly strive to “write short” in order not only to ensure that we have space enough for all the other stories we want to publish on a given day but also — and even more important — to ensure that all our stories are accessible, clear and easily digestible by hurried newspaper readers. Yet, at the same time, the nature of daily news reporting is such that a deadline is always looming, so our ability to report in shimmering, finely polished prose is under constant attack.

As Boswell/Shaw/Twain/Voltaire's quote implies, it might seem that a lengthy report would take more time to produce than a short one, but in fact the opposite is true. An informative, concise 2-inch brief can take as long to produce as a 12-inch story under certain conditions.

I tell you this not to lament the intolerable working conditions inherent to our craft, but actually to apply the conditions to a segment of the paper — Fence Post, or our letters to the editor column — where people aren't trained in brevity and to share some reflection about the mentality that goes into the art of succinct writing.

Each day, we strive to provide a Fence Post column that is engaging and diverse. Ideally, we should have three to five items on a variety of topics, at least one of which will stir your interest, challenge your own thinking or even just make you smile. Achieving that goal favors writers who understand the soul of wit — and to help them all in that regard, we impose an admittedly somewhat arbitrary limit of 300 words.

Yet, every day, we find ourselves either sending letters back to be shortened, trimming them ourselves or engaging in a dialogue with a writer who is convinced that his or her subject cannot be covered in under five, six or seven hundred words. And, though time and repetition have eroded my reaction to these appeals into a slightly bemused smirk, I'm also reminded every time of conversations familiar to every editor with reporters who simply cannot cut their 30-inch description to fit the 15-inch space allotted.

Sometimes, of course, the defender is right. And, regardless of that consideration, whether the writer is an experienced newspaper reporter or a first-time contributor to the letters to the editor column, the entreaty certainly reflects a passion for quality and for the subject that must be admired. Still, we can all use the reminder that the Beloved Disciple managed to sum up the love of Christ for his friend Lazarus, and perhaps much more, in the phrase “Jesus wept.” Thoroughness may require a bit more detail from us mortals, but it does none of us harm to remember that our purple prose can often do with a little extra time in the polishing process.

I do have more to say on this subject, of course, but inasmuch as I have only two lines of text remaining, I now must take my own advice. Plus, I have to devote some time to finding out who really authored one of my favorite quotes.

Jim Slusher, jslusher@dailyherald.com, is an assistant managing editor at the Daily Herald. You can also follow him on Facebook and Twitter.