As Alice discovered, it’s all about space. In this e-publishing era, each letter, space, and punctuation mark is a byte. And bytes are space. That’s why the old rule – two spaces at the beginning of a sentence – has been thrown out. Now it’s one space everywhere. And if they (those invisible editors) could find a way to get by with it, they’d ask us to doeverythinglikethis and they’d figure it out.  

Old habits die hard – my thumb rhythmically hits the space bar twice at the end of a sentence. So use find and replace in your word processing program. Find period two spaces (.    ) and replace it with period one space (.   ). It’s hard to write out those instructions, so I hope I explained it well. If you have a lot of other punctuation at the end of your sentences, do the same with ?,!,” and whatever else you might use. This will pick up most of them, but a quick read-through would be in order, too.

Even if your work is for the printed page, space counts. Editors know exactly how many pages they want, and that governs the word count. (Here’s a good source for extensive information on word count for novels, children’s books and a few others)-

 http;//www.writersdigest.com/editor-blogs/guide-to-literary-agents/word-count-for-novels-and-childrens-books-the-definitive-post

Magazines, newsletters, journals, and newspapers have column sizes to worry about. 800 words means 825 won’t get considered. 750 is too few. You might get by with 790, but if they have to throw in too much kerning (adjusting the spacing between letters), the end result will be an odd-looking article. Reject!

Like Alice, you have to learn to shrink and grow until you have something just the right size, for just the right fit. Don’t you wish there was an “F” button or a “Control/Alt” command on your keyboard that would add or subtract extra words for you, in the right places?  Our own versions of teacakes, drinks, and mushrooms (the legal kind, anyway…).   

And think of contests as practice. Here’s where you check editing skills. Write the piece the way you want it. Surprise! It’s 200 words over. Oh no!  Each phrase is a finely crafted work! What do you do?

You put it aside for at least 24 hours, 48 is better. Look for words like that, just, only, and other extraneous modifiers. Slice ‘em! Analyze each line, especially long ones. Can you say the same thing shorter? Can you combine three words into one better one? It’s an agonizing process. Your phrases are quotable gems, but are they necessary to your story or essay? Keep digging. Put it aside again, and take it up tomorrow. It can happen.  

Your alternative? Find someplace else for your piece, and don’t enter. If you make the effort to pare down your work, it will be much better.  This blog was originally 761 words. Now, it’s 480. Not that it’s perfect, mind you.  But it fits!