To write is to delete
Also known as: kill your darlings
A common motto in writing is "writing is deleting. A message can usually be conveyed in a better way than how it is initially written down. This is especially true for advertising texts, business communications and web texts. In these texts, persuasion is an important goal and the attention span is limited.
Ridding texts of unnecessary words and information and woolly language when reading, rewriting and editing not only reduces length. More emphasis on the essentials makes a text clearer and more direct. Combined with an active use of language, sentences also become more vivid and concrete.
The phrase writing is deleting was coined by the Dutch writer Godfried Bomans. Flemish writer Willem Elsschot also contributed to this principle; the Elsschot test involves omitting as many words as possible from a text without changing or losing the content.
Kill your darlings
An English term related to writing is deletion is "kill your darlings. This motto also calls for deletion in texts. This often involves not only form, but also fundamental choices about what you want to tell as a writer.
According to its creator, American writer William Faulkner, authors and lyricists must dare to distance themselves from passages and characters they love but which, strictly speaking, add nothing to a text or story.