The Right Words Editing

The first thing you notice about Les is what's missing: his left arm. So is his right thumb. That's thanks to an electrical accident some sixty years ago. He's learned to function, he tells me, through the principles of physics – leverage, angles, motion. He might use his teeth as a hand to hold his coat while he slides his arm in. If he's stuck, he asks for help.

"Can you cut this Danish for me?" he asked the other day. "Four pieces would be good." So I did, but usually he's on his own.
A few months ago he called me. "I'm running for city council," he announced. "I think I need you."
"For what?" I wondered.
"Editing. My speeches, my web site, my press releases."

My heart soared. Our friend Glen had told him to call me. Since I started my editing business and joined a networking group, I've been getting calls like this. I love it: a bit of work and a chance to sound like an English teacher, even though I'm retired.
So Les and I talked together under our Japanese maple tree. We clarified his ideas, developed some quotable lines, and agreed to meet again.
"But there's one thing I'm not changing," he assured me. "My motto. It's my life philosophy: Do more with Les."
I couldn't have been happier. His motto corresponds exactly with my first rule of good writing: Write tight.
"What is the difference," I used to ask my students, "between 'very cold' and 'cold'?"
"One's colder," they'd reply, comfortable in the obvious.
"How cold?"
"Very, very cold."
"Then say 'frigid' or 'polar' or 'glacial.' One word can be more powerful than two. Get rid of 'very.' And drop those other weak qualifiers, too, like 'rather' and 'somewhat' and sort of'."
Do more with less, I meant. Be more powerful with fewer words. Eliminate words that sound right but don't add meaning, or that waffle around instead of hitting hard. Fewer words can equate to more power.
Les understood this because he lives by the paradox that less can become more through the careful, clever use of resources. He's owned businesses, developed sub-divisions, and managed resource extraction companies. He's raised his two wonderful children. Now he's fought for public office. He's done that with one arm and four fingers. Do more with less, with Les.
Turns out that he didn't get elected. Still, of twenty candidates, winners and losers, he's the only one who received an unqualified compliment from a crusty newspaper editor who summarized the election results: "He had the best slogan." Les's printer told him that his brochures and ads were clear and tightly written, just as I'd hoped, and the wording of his web site was beyond reproach.
No, Les didn't get elected, but he stayed true to his life principle, in his campaign and in his writing. That's more than most politicians can claim, and more than a lot of writers do.