Brevity is a wonderful skill for a writer to have–and one I sorely lack. I almost always over-write, at least on my first drafts, which means I have to spend lots of time cutting and condensing
on subsequent passes. Sometimes I wonder if it's worth all the trouble.
But then I run into a perfect example of the beauty of brevity. In the memoir A Girl Named Zippy by Haven Kimmel, the author is describing her childhood bicycle, which was clearly as
important to her as mine was to me. I lived
for my bike, and if you asked me now to describe it in a memoir, chances are
I'd give you at least two or three pages on the topic, a whole discourse about
freedom and adventure and calamity and friendship and opportunity
and more. Not Kimmel. Instead, here is all she says of her bicycle:
It was my stallion, and we had been down a dusty road or two.
That’s more than enough, isn’t it? In that one sentence, she has
nailed the essence of the rich and complex relationship between a girl and her faithful two-wheeled companion.
Great thoughts for me, as I am a new writer. :-)
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