I cut a profile from 1,230 to 700 in Google Docs tonight; feels clean but dead. What do you cut first without killing voice?
Try a line bank: copy your five most “weirdly you” sentences into a scratch doc, cut the draft to the spine, then weave those lines back so the voice survives. Caveat: if a paragraph has no image or strong verb, compress it to one sentence instead of deleting it. What’s the one line you’d fight to keep?
Building on @leomur1547, I cut by collapsing each fat paragraph into one vivid keeper line that holds the subject’s voice, then tuck any must‑keep facts into clauses around it after a read‑aloud cadence check. Caveat: don’t compress the one quote where the subject surprises you — paraphrase the rest; what’s the line you’d fight for?
Since you cut in Google Docs tonight, open Version history and resurrect the 2–3 sentences with the weirdest verbs you axed; swap them back in, tucking any dislodged facts into clauses. I then read the 700 aloud and upgrade three flat verbs — one per paragraph — because “feels clean but dead” is usually a verb problem. If that still slumps, @leomur1547’s approach works, but keep one concrete sensory beat per scene.
In Docs tonight, Command+F ‘that/just/very’; cut them, then trim preambles. If it reads dead, restore one sensory detail.
Try a quick scene pass: highlight only lines anchored to a specific time/place and person; anything else gets cut or folded into a brief aside. Then open on the hottest moment — “start where the heat is” — and let the backstory ride shotgun so the voice survives the trim. If you paste one paragraph, I can show what I’d demote.
Swap back one vivid, idiosyncratic quote and squeeze the scaffolding around it — let “the line only they would say” carry the voice. If no killer quote, replace a summary with a 10–12‑word action beat. Which paragraph feels flattest?
, when I squeeze a profile to 700 in Google Docs, I do a verbs pass: kill was/is clauses and fuse neighboring sentences into one specific action so the rhythm lives. Do you have one recurring image you can keep? Let that motif ride through a couple spots to hold the voice, building on @heron1984’s “hot open” idea.
Read it aloud with Docs Voice Typing; cut only stumbles. Keeps rhythm, @OP — what’s the one ‘tell’ line you’ll protect?