This weekend, in celebration of my niece’s high school graduation, her friends and family sat around my sister’s dining room table, filling notecards with encouraging words. In a few months, my sister will mail those notes one at a time to my niece’s dorm room.  

Graduations are natural opportunities for growth and change. And they’re usually full of advice for the new grad.

I remember none of the advice that I got during my high school and college graduations. But I did benefit from some transformational advice early in my career. 

It came more than 20 years ago, delivered via email, from the late writing coach Steve Buttry. 

I reached out to him, hoping for some feedback. He responded with a long, thoughtful email and an insight that I’ve never forgotten. 

“In rewriting, look for the passages where you indulge in overwriting,” he wrote. “I don't have a problem with overwriting in rough drafts. You were trying to come up with a profound, moving line. And the difference between a profound, moving line and overwriting is really small. You don't get the moving ones without writing some clunkers, because both require going beyond usual writing. Rewriting is where you weed out the ones that didn't work.”

Rather than tell me to stop overwriting, he encouraged me to use it and then cut from the next draft. That advice improved my work and my process instantly, and it’s something I think about every time I sit down and start writing. 

Get it all out, then start weeding.

What’s a piece of advice you’ve gotten in the course of your career that’s been meaningful? You can email me your favorites by replying to this newsletter. If I get enough to share, I will next week. 

By the way, I did not write anything inspirational or meaningful in that note to my niece. She’ll be super close to me for college, so I plan to impart my wisdom in person. 😍

While you’re here: 

• From Poynter’s Amaris Castillo, learn how “legal support for journalists is evolving to meet the rising threats to press freedom.”

• From Nieman Lab, learn about “The Office” spinoff based in a fictional local newsroom.

• Also from Nieman Lab, read about how The New York Times’ local investigative fellowships give “local reporters the time and resources to take big swings.”

• Check out the latest findings from the Center for Community News on student reporting programs.

• And earlier this month, The Ithaca Times announced it’s going nonprofit. “The Ithaca Times has seen massive changes over the course of a half century. In an American landscape increasingly characterized by news deserts, ghost papers, and questionable online sources, Ithaca is lucky to have one of the remaining viable weekly newspapers, and one whose character is so well aligned to the spirit and history of the community.”

That’s it for me. Thanks for inspiring me each week. 

Kristen