And once we write, we hate to cut. It can sometimes seem like taking out living tissue. Yet when we read, especially for information, tight prose is the kind we love to read. Such prose is lean . . . It's prose that's stripped of lard or clutter.
First drafts are fatty by nature.
And it's right that they should be. After all, when we write a rough draft, we are exploring. There should be tentativeness, repetition. Wordy constructions help by allowing us to slow down to figure out where we're going next. But if we acknowledge our readers' expectations, we'll get busy and squeeze this fat out.