Tl;Dr – Just cut the excess away.
Writing is like gardening.
First, it's hard work, toil, and digging up the land. In writing, that's research, interviews, and fact checking.
Then the planting of seeds of thought, and watching them germinate and grow.
The sproutlings then require attention, as if you were your ideas' sunshine.
Before you know it, you soon have a small bush. Basically, a few paragraphs and keywords.
Perhaps your bush grows further, and you clear away some weeds, and soon you have an overly leafy bush.
The Anatomy of Your Writing
You have a root system now, which are like keywords in writing. Without them, the article dies. You should stay rooted to your topic through these many keywords.
The main stem or "trunk" is like the general purpose of your writing.
And of course the branches are your various supporting topics.
The leaves are the details.
The ripe fruit are memorable lines repeated to others, propagating your juicy ideas everywhere.
The fragrant and artful flowers are attractive writing, designed to aid in pollination and fertilization (i.e., monetization) of your efforts.
Fertilize with new, potent ideas.
Simple Pruning
It's proven that removing excess leaves will promote better root structures. That means your keywords and main ideas will be clearer.
Pruning also saves vital nutrients for more abundant fruit and more fragrant flowers.
Is your writing "too leafy?" Does it have too many obscuring details?
Trim and Simplify
Allow the fruit and flowers of your writing to grow and propagate. Fertilize our minds and plant your lovely, profound thoughts.
Real Life Pruning
Read this for trimming tips, from gardeningknowhow.com, by Ilana Goldowitz Jimenez, on guava trees:
"Pruning Techniques
Three types of cuts are used on guava trees: thinning cuts, heading back, and pinching.
Thinning helps counteract the tree’s dense growth to let light and air in to the inner branches, which helps them stay healthy and productive. It also makes the fruit easier to reach.
To thin, simply remove some of the branches by cutting them at their base.
Pinching means removing the growing tip of shoots.
Heading back means pruning individual branches to reduce their length.
These techniques allow you to control the horizontal spread of the tree.
Guava flowers on new growth, so these cuts also induce the tree to produce more flowers and fruit.
It is important to prune established trees regularly to prevent them from spreading away from the original planting location.
Guavas have become invasive trees in some regions of Florida, Hawaii, and elsewhere.
Remove any suckers that appear at the base of the tree or above the roots, and cut back branches that spread too far."
Read more at Gardening Know How: Guava Tree Pruning – How Do I Prune My Guava Tree https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/edible/fruits/guava/guava-tree-pruning.htm
Really couldn't have written a better summation of trimming down wordy (or woody, in this case, haha) articles myself.
Thank you
Thank you for reading my thoughts on writing. You are welcome to my treehouse of ideas, anytime.
Please upvote and comment on my posts, please. Still new here.
This is all original writing from my blog at https://artfoodcam.wordpress.com/2018/02/09/prune-writing-for-fruit-and-flowers/
#writing #simplify #conciseness #brevity #timemanagement #pruning #focus