Being able to paint pictures and convey thoughts that hold listener’s attention is only effective if you don’t lose the listener with too many words.  Being verbose is a curse. 

You run into these kind of people at parties all the time.  They’ll be musing on and on about one thing or another and even though the subject matter may be to your liking you find it impossible to actually listen to what they’re saying and the point is lost on you.

This is also the point where instead of listening to the story your eyes and mind start to wander around the room.

The same thing happens to you if your content (stories) are too wordy and loquacious.  You lose mind share.

Redlining is the function of removing what is not needed to make the break (story) shorter and more palatable.

As an exercise;  get out one of your air-checks and write down several of your breaks.  Now draw a red line through all the none essential or repetitive content in your breaks (stories).  You’ll be surprised on how you can still get your story and witty banter across in much, much fewer words!

Note:  I have been preaching this exercise for years and have found that very few take me up on this application.  Which is sad because over time you can get this skill down with years and years of practice.  Then again I’ve watched talents turn their whole careers around by practicing the redline technique in just a few months.

If you’re willing to put in the time, this is a good one!