Any thoughts on word count? One of the biggest challenges to me as a freelancer is balancing out writing for myself (which is always going to be better, and more rewarding) and writing to fit stylistic and technical requirements of mags and journals who will publish me. In a perfect world there'd be a match and I'd get to achieve BOTH, but that's happens so rarely.
Ordinarily I find that essays or stories I've written are too long for freelance journals, so there begins the task of whittling. I think in the end this makes the writing stronger because I have to say my piece in fewer words, but sometimes I feel like I'm trying to wedge a square peg into a round hole.
How have others dealt with this? Do you just self-consciously write as concisely as possible to not get tripped up by word count issues? Do you mercilessly hack your trenchant prose in the hopes of being read?
Ordinarily I find that essays or stories I've written are too long for freelance journals, so there begins the task of whittling. I think in the end this makes the writing stronger because I have to say my piece in fewer words, but sometimes I feel like I'm trying to wedge a square peg into a round hole.
How have others dealt with this? Do you just self-consciously write as concisely as possible to not get tripped up by word count issues? Do you mercilessly hack your trenchant prose in the hopes of being read?