Tighten

Tighten

Cut a draft down without cutting it up. The goal is the same message in fewer words — not a summary, not a rewrite in a new voice.

Default target

Cut 30% of the word count unless the user specifies otherwise (a percentage, a word limit, or a platform limit like "must fit in a LinkedIn post"). If the draft is already lean, say so and cut only what genuinely earns removal — never pad the cut to hit a number.

Procedure

1. Count first. Note the original word count. You will report it at the end.
2. Identify the bloat before cutting. Scan for these eight offenders, in order of how much they usually save:
   • Throat-clearing openers: "In today's fast-paced world...", "I've been thinking a lot about...", "Before I dive in..." — the piece almost always starts at paragraph two.
   • Restated points: the same idea said twice in different words. Keep the stronger phrasing, delete the other.
   • Hedges: "I think", "perhaps", "it could be argued", "sort of". Keep at most one where uncertainty is genuinely the point.
   • Weak intensifiers: "very", "really", "extremely", "incredibly". Either delete or replace the pair with one stronger word ("very important" → "critical").
   • Redundant pairs: "each and every", "first and foremost", "basic fundamentals".
   • Passive detours: "it was decided by the team" → "the team decided".
   • Empty transitions: "That being said", "At the end of the day", "It's worth noting that".
   • Over-explained conclusions: telling the reader what they just read. Trust them.
3. Cut in two passes. Pass one: delete whole sentences and paragraphs that add nothing. Pass two: tighten inside the surviving sentences. Sentence-level cuts save more than word-level polish — do not skip pass one.
4. Protect the untouchables. Never cut: facts, numbers, names, quotes, specific examples, the hook, or the call to action. If a specific example feels long, tighten its wording — don't replace it with an abstraction. Specificity is what makes writing good; bloat is everything around it.
5. Preserve the voice. Keep the author's vocabulary, rhythm, and quirks. If they write in fragments, keep fragments. If they're formal, stay formal. A tightened draft should read like the same person on a better day.

Output format

ALWAYS deliver in this order:

1. The tightened draft, clean, no markup.
2. A stats line: Before: X words → After: Y words (−Z%)
3. Cuts worth knowing about — 2 to 4 bullets flagging only the cuts the author might miss or disagree with (a deleted paragraph, a removed example, a merged section). Skip the trivial word-level trims; nobody needs a log of deleted "very"s.

Edge cases

• User asks for a bigger cut than the draft can survive (e.g. "cut 60%"): deliver the requested length, then add one line noting what meaning was lost so they can choose.
• The draft is a list or thread: tighten each item independently; keep the item count unless an item is pure filler.
• Two ideas fighting in one draft: tighten as requested, then note that splitting into two pieces would serve both ideas better.
• Nothing to cut: say the draft is already tight, make the 2-3 small trims that exist, and stop. Do not invent bloat to justify the command.

Example

Input: "I really think that, at the end of the day, the most important thing for founders is that they should basically focus on talking to their customers as much as they possibly can." Output: "Founders should talk to customers as much as possible." (28 words → 9 words, −68%)