1000-WORD EXCERPT FROM CHAPTER 5
FOCUS YOUR EDIT ON WRITING SHORT WORDS

A few short lessons
For the record, the Microsoft Word manual says you should try for a score of 60 to 70 in reading ease on the Flesch scale and seventh- to eighth-grade level on the Flesch-Kincaid Scale. Forget that. Those numbers flat dont cut it. Like most of my lessons in life, I learned this one the hard way.

Lesson 1: The discovery of the Reading Ease Ideal
I was deep into writing a book for novelists, The Fiction Writers Brainstormer (Writers Digest Books, 2000). While tossing around some crazy ideas for ways to look at how to revise and edit, I decided to study success. And not just a single case of success or success in only the things I read. But success all across the board. Best-selling success, to be specific about it. I chose my favorite author and my least favorite. I chose women and men, current selections and works out of the past. Only one thing mattered: the writers had to be best-selling authors.

I analyzed the writing of these best-selling authors: Fannie Flagg (Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe), Kaye Gibbons (Ellen Foster), John Grisham (The Street Lawyer), Jan Karon (A New Song), Stephen King (Misery), Elmore Leonard (Hanging out at the Buena Vista, a short story) Terry McMillan (How Stella Got Her Groove Back), Anna Quindlen (One True Thing), Danielle Steel (Star), and Wallace Stegner (Angle of Repose).

Heres how I compared the authors. I tested samples of the novels and the entire short story of Elmore Leonard. I put the samples into Word documents and ran the reading scans. (To be objective, I took the opening 500 to 700 words from each novel and another 500 to 700 words from the exact center of each book. To be subjective, I also took high-energy samples from the end of each book, dipping into the climax, where youd expect to find the best writing.) Except for the short story, each total sample was 2,000 words or longer.

On a diverse list like that, you wouldnt expect to find much in common, would you? Besides their fat royalty checks, right? Wrong.

Imagine how stunned I was to see not one, but several things in common emerge, things that you and I can use.

I knew I had to double-check those findings. So I decided to test several samples against the best-sellers. I used a sample from my own writing, from an unpublished novelist, who had sent a manuscript for me to critique, and from the U.S. government. I didnt sandbag, either. I used a Medal of Honor citation, which I thought would rank better than average government writing.

I was stunned again by this further result:

Best-selling authors share several critical traits in their writing. Whats more, most other writers, whether in fiction or non-fiction, do not share those traits with the best-selling authors.

What are these traits? You already know them, of course. They are the five elements of the CC Writers Ideal.

Short sentences
Short words
Active voice
High reading ease on the Flesch scale
A level of 6 or lower on the Flesch-Kincaid scale of reading ease.

Heck, that should be no surprise. I found those factors in those best-selling books and adapted them for you. Are they the same standards as those in your CC Writer Ideal? No.

Clearly, authors of best-selling novels, corporate writers, newspaper reporters, and tech writers have different audiences. One size Ideal may not fit all.

In The Fiction Writers Brainstormer, I laid out my first Reading Ease Ideal for novelists.

Lesson 2: Reading Ease Ideal for novelists

No standard for sentence length (CC Writer standard is 15 wps)
An average 4.25 characters a word (CC Writer standard is 4.5)
Passive voice in no more than 5 percent of sentences (CCW max of 2 percent)
A score of 80 percent or higher on the Flesch scale (CC Writer, 75 percent)
4-6 on the Flesch-Kincaid scale

Why the difference for fiction writers?

On sentence length, I give fiction writers artistic license to vary sentence length. CC Writers need a stricter set of goals because lack of focus is such an issue in corporate writing. Even so, in my fiction, I try for an average of 12 to 15 words.

On characters per word. I hold novelists to a stricter Ideal. A corporate writer is stuck with long words. On Wall Street, for instance, writers have to live with terms like portfolio diversification. Two words, 25 characters, and 10 syllables.

On passive voice. Novelists get more slack, up to 5 percent, rather than the 2 percent max I gave to CC Writers. In fiction, passive voice can help a writer pace a scene by slowing action. Corporate writers neednt worry so much about pace. Logic, reading ease, and the all-hallowed bottom line count for so much more.

On the Flesch scale, I went to 80 percent as a minimum. I also think a novelist should write high-energy scenes in the 90+ range on Flesch and 3-4 in Flesch-Kincaid.

Lesson 3: Editing that matters most

Before I went through the work of re-editing my novel, I had to know: What editing steps would have the most effect?

I edited one scene four times, each time starting with the original piece of writing. Heres how it went:

On the first edit, I changed passive voice to active only, to see what effect that would have on reading ease. I made no other changes, except to move words around to keep the sense of the writing.
On the second edit of the original piece, I deleted words where I could and did nothing else.
On the third edit, I cut sentences apart with periods. I made word changes to keep the sense of the piece.
On the fourth edit, I cut big words down to size.

By now I think you can guess which edit had the best effect on reading ease. Yep, cutting big words.