Trimming the fat

Most of the writers I have talked to have a tendency to draft too much. I started noticing this in university, where my peers often complained of the difficulty they had cutting their essays down to the recommended word count, and since then I've heard a lot of similar sentiments from creative writers whose first drafts consistently need to be edited down by a significant margin. Clearly, this is a common experience.

However, it's one of several common writing experiences that I don't share. I've always been prone to underwriting my drafts and lowballing essay word counts, and most of my editing involves finding ideas I need to expand on. There must be a middle ground in there somewhere, and that's what we all aim for in the editing process. So how do we find it?

Since my observation has been that cutting down overlarge drafts is much more usual, I'll focus on that today. (If you are more my style of writer and want me to discuss how to fill a draft out, leave a comment or send me a message so I know there's interest!) I may not have to deal with this personally in my own writing, but my editorial skills and instincts for efficiency have served me well in helping others with the task. With that caveat out of the way, let's look at some strategies!