Free gifts

Have you ever paid for a gift?

Gifts are free by their very nature, making the word "free" redundant.

All the meaning you need is in the word "gift".

Free gifts can be found everywhere in bad copy.

They’re word combinations where one word carries all the meaning. Free gifts suffocate your copy with their inefficiency.

I call them free gifts because they’re a gift to the editor. An easy cull, immediately making the copy more atomic. All the meaning, fewer words.

Here are some more:

• Personal friend = Friends are always personal
• Strip out = Strip says it all
• Fall down = Nothing falls up
• Combine together = Combinations always go together
• Basic fundamentals = Fundamentals are always basic
• Revert back = The backness is already captured in revert
• New innovation = Innovations are always new
• Briefly summarise = Summaries are brief by nature
  
  

These vapid additions can slip into your work unnoticed. Expose them by putting every word on trial and asking if the opposite is true:

• Can you have an impersonal friend?
• Can you strip something in?
• Can something fall up?
• Can you combine things apart?
• Can you have elaborate fundamentals?
• Can you revert forward?
• Can you have an old innovation?
• Can you have lengthy summaries?
  
  

It might sound daunting to scrutinise every word but that's what makes writing good. It isn't easy but it is worth it, and fortunately with practice, it becomes natural.

Be harsh. Make those cuts. Force every word to fight for its place.