This is an I-Heart podcast.

What I told people, I was making a podcast about Benghazi.

Nine times out of ten, they called me a masochist, rolled their eyes, or just asked, why?

Benghazi, the truth became a web of lies.

From prologue projects and Pushkin Industries, this is Fiasco, Benghazi.

What difference at this point does it make?

Listen to Fiasco, Benghazi, in the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of IHeart Radio.

Good morning.

This is Laura.

Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.

Today's tip is that when you're writing, making something shorter almost always makes it better.

So give your writing a haircut, and your readers will be happier to read what you wrote.

This week, I'm sharing some of my favorite writing tips.

Even if you don't write for a living,

you might need to write reports or emails or articles for industry publications. A few strategies can help anyone create writing that is more compelling and clear. So my first

professional writing gigs were for USA Today and Reader's Digest,

which are two publications known for brevity. Paper publications always have limited space,

and so whatever I wrote the first time would almost always need to become shorter to make it onto the page.

This was sometimes frustrating, and it doesn't work to turn a 1,000-word article into a 500-word article.

You need a different-sized thesis for those two links.

That said, turning a 1,000-word article into a 900-word article

...