Every syllable scratched out is likely to take away some quality of
a character upon which a subsequent event will turn. It is necessary
to remember to the last detail what is removed and what remains. The
elimination of a noun in the first installment may reduce the impact of
a scene in the last. The contraction of a scenic description may ruin
the comprehensibility of the hero's actions later on in the tale. And,
when the most careful economy has been achieved, the goal of decimation
may still be at a distance so that the writer is obliged to select this
situation, that dialogue, yonder tender scene, and recast the whole in
briefer compass, the while omitting no cogent phrase or fact, however
trifling.
It is a big puzzle and a hard job.
It took me, I should think, another quarter of an hour to stow away my
Ghoul completely, divert attention from the prick in my throat, and
become immersed in the running words.
My editors say I am a good professional.
And that, my liberal-intellectual critics add, is all: a capable hack.
O liberals.
O cognoscenti.
O critics.