8. Writing To Length

Being able to produce the right amount of text is an important skill in any area of copywriting, but it is particularly critical in newspapers and magazines because space on the page is at a premium. Running over your word count by a paragraph or two would not be a problem on a website, for example, but on a newspaper or magazine it would create headaches for production staff and you could end up losing material that you felt was vital to your story.

To avoid running over, the best option is to keep an eye on your word count once you get about halfway through your story. Aim to over-run slightly in your first draft, say by about five per cent, and then go back and edit the whole story down to the right length. I usually aim to hand in copy that is within plus or minus five words of the target word count. This may be a bit pedantic if you are writing a major article, but if you find your draft is more than about five per cent longer than it should be (say, 50 words over on a 1,000-word feature), perhaps you should think about losing a paragraph somewhere.

There may also be times, particularly when writing news stories, that there simply is not enough information to hand to stretch the article to the length you need. Your options then are to try to extend the scope of the story, for example by bringing in more background information, or to let your editor know as soon as possible so they can adjust the page plan accordingly.