The Author Guy blog by Larry B. Gildersleeve
8 th December 2023 Hey, out there, Welcome back. Today, a word about words. A few weeks ago, the autobiography My Name is Barbra was released. No need to identify the author – who else could it be? But here’s the thing. Isn’t 992 pages a bit much, even for someone with such a stellar stage, film and music career? I think it is. The comparisons I’m about to make are by no means parallel or comparable, but they are, I believe, illustrative about the verbosity trap into which so many people in the public eye are prone to fall. The account of creation in Genisis is told in only 400 words; the Ten Commandments in 313; the Lord’s Prayer in 66. The Declaration of Independence, written in 1776, contains a mere 1,322 words, yet the 2010 Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) extends to almost twelve million words with all of its associated regulations. Whether written or spoken, I believe more words don’t always, or even usually, equate to better. The Reverend Martin Luther King Jr’s large...