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Comment by nikatwork | Hacker News Reader

"I am sorry I have had to write you such a long letter, but I did not have time to write you a short one" -- Blaise Pascal

My writing was also ruined by highschool English rewarding large word counts and overblown language. Twitter has completely broken me of the habit, and my writing is far clearer and punchier as a result.

Eschew excess verbiage and all that.

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Why is "excess" needed there? "Eschew verbiage" seems a better fit to its own guideline. "Verbiage" means "speech or writing that uses too many words or excessively technical expressions" so the original is something like "avoid an excess of too many words."

I think the phrasing was purposefully self-ironic, but in the sense of excessively technical expressions rather than having too many words.

"Be brief."

It's a Mark Twain quote where Twain was making the point ironically.

verbiage (plural verbiages) 1. Overabundance of words 2. (US) The manner in which something is expressed in words

Using the second definition, this quote makes sense only with the inclusion of "excess".

[1] http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/verbiage

The most eye-opening thing I've did in that regard is participate in a "microfiction" contest related to an online game, that had you tell complete stories in exactly 55 words, with a (vague) predetermined theme.

It's truly amazing what you can do with so few words.

I'd love to read some of these, got a link?

http://forums.puzzlepirates.com/community/mvnforum/viewthrea...

The rounds of contest stories are linked in the first post. The contest was inspired by this: http://www.wunderland.com/WTS/Andy/Nanofiction.html

Great stuff. Reminds me of Hemmingway's shortest story, just 6 words: "For sale: baby shoes, never used."

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