Word Clutter

In my last blog post, I tackled (a soft tackle, I admit) the issue of the cluttered workspace.  Now I'd like to segue to the issue of cluttered writing.  Yes, in case you weren't aware of it, cluttered writing is a thing.  In fact, for most of us, cluttered writing is something that we may have picked up when we first started writing for school assignments way back when.  For a lot of folks writing back then for, let's say, a book report assignment, brevity may not have seemed to be a viable option.  When your teacher or professor insisted on a ten page report on "To Kill a Mockingbird," you may have been hard-pressed for enough things to say in a concise or succinct manner (did you catch my clutter there?).  As time went on, many of us kept in the habit of filling empty space with an overabundance of words.  To a lot of non-writers, this copious quantity of word plentifulness (how about now?) looks like you're really smart and know a profuse amount of words!  Now, while actually knowing a lot of words is good, great even, trying to use them all at once in your writing may seem pretentious or even amateurish to a potential agent, publisher, or even reader.  Now, I don't know what your opinion is concerning cluttered writing, but lets read the learned opinion of  William Zinsser, as written in his book, "On Writing Well: An Informal Guide to Writing Nonfiction."
  "I think of "clutter words" as "flutter words." They may look pretty as they flutter around the substance of a sentence, but they are distracting, and fighting clutter is like fighting weeds--the writer is always slightly behind."
He defines clutter as "the laborious phrase which has pushed out the short word that means the same thing."
Most people use word clutter carelessly, without intention, while other people use clutter in the hopes that they will sound more important or because they think it is expected in their profession. But in almost all cases, word clutter should be avoided.  Most agents (not to mention readers) prefer writing that is spare and gets to the point.
  William Strunk, famous for his advice on effective writing, said: “Omit needless words.” Why write “not very good” when you can write “atrocious”? Why say “actually quite interesting” when you can say “fascinating”?
  Weak verbs add clutter to writing. Often, one strong word can replace two weak ones. For example, replace “think up a plan” with “devise a plan.” Substitute “go around the country” with “travel the country.” Unnecessary adjectives are equally worthless. Why write “a severe problem” when you can say “a crisis”?  The “if” clause is another way to kill clarity. For example: “If you want to write more concisely, get to the point.” Why not simply say: “To write more concisely, get to the point”? This is better, but what if we removed the verb “write”? We could then say: “Concise writing gets to the point.”
 
So I hope you writers out there have gotten the point.  Declutter your writing, and your writing will be the better for it.  Remember, you're not trying to prove how smart you are, just what a great writer you are!