Why Your Best Sentences Are the Ones You Delete
There is a particular kind of sentence that feels excellent while writing it — a neat turn of phrase, a clever aside. It is also the sentence most likely to be doing nothing.
Clever is a warning sign
If a line made you pleased with yourself, check who it serves. Writing that draws attention to its own construction pulls attention away from its point.
This is not an argument for dull prose. It is an argument for noticing the difference between a sentence that lands an idea and one that performs.
Keep a cuts file
Deleting is easier when it isn't permanent. Move the line to a scratch file instead of removing it and the resistance mostly disappears.
You will almost never go back for it. That is the point — the difficulty was ownership, not usefulness.
Test by removal
Take the sentence out and read the paragraph. If nothing is lost, it wasn't load-bearing, however good it sounded.
Apply the same test to whole paragraphs. The results are often uncomfortable and usually right.