Counting the words

I just had an interesting experience counting words. Back when I was a columnist for our local paper I learned to write so the words fit into the space provided. I could take a person's entire life and share it on one page or about 500 words. Since then I have always tried to take as little space as necessary to say what I need to say.

Then came my experience as a contributor for an online magazine. I had to learn to add words to come up to their required word count. It was about double to what I had ever written before. I took it as a lesson I needed to learn.

To this day I am annoyed with authors who add way too much detail. I mentally scream, will you just get on with your story!

My latest challenge is a friend who is getting a newsletter together for her business. She asked if anyone would like to contribute short pieces. At first I thought the subject she is dealing with was not for me. Then I remembered an article I had written back in 2013 for our local newspaper that would be a good fit for the subject matter. The problem was it was over 600 words, twice the size my friend needed for her newsletter.

I printed out a copy and began reading it. I asked myself, can you make this fit the required 300 words? I love a challenge, so I started eliminating words until it was slimmed down. It didn't loose anything in what I was trying to say and I actually had fun editing the piece. I sent it on to my friend and she said she will probably use it.

It reminded me of an experience I had with the publisher of my first hard cover book, "Wake Up!" I sent what was supposed to be on the back cover of the book and got a message back to reduce what I had written by half. That was unexpected, but I did it. 

I'm not sure if word count really matters as long as you don't leave out anything important.