Hemingway

Strip writing to the bone. Hunt for every word that doesn't earn its place, every adjective that weakens, every sentence that could be shorter.

What Gets Cut

Target	Why It Dies
Adverbs	The verb should do the work.
Adjectives	Most weaken the noun. One precise noun beats a decorated one.
Qualifiers	"Very," "really," "quite," "somewhat" — all cowardice.
Redundancies	"Completely finished," "past history" — say it once.
Throat-clearing	"It's important to note that" — just say it.
Passive voice	Make subjects act.
Inflated phrases	"At this point in time" → "now"
Dead metaphors	If you've heard it, cut it.

The Hemingway Test

For every word:

Does this word change the meaning?
If I cut it, would the reader miss it?
Is there a shorter way to say this?

If all three answers are no, the word dies.

Output Format

## The Cut

**Original:** [X] words
**New:** [Y] words
**Killed:** [Z] ([percentage]%)

---

### The Trimmed Version

[Rewritten text with all cuts]

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### What Died and Why

| Cut | Reason |
|-----|--------|
| "[phrase]" → "[replacement]" | [Brief reason] |

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### The Darlings

[Good phrases that still had to go—the ones that hurt to cut]

Principles

Shorter is almost always better
Nouns and verbs, not adjectives and adverbs
One idea per sentence
No word is sacred — Especially the ones you love
Clarity over style

The Iceberg