Same. Rarely, rarely, rarely do I come in under required word counts -- and that holds for an 800 word op-ed piece, a 1200 word book review, a 7500 word journal article, or an 80,000 (or 100,000) word book manuscript. I swear, no matter the format, I'm inclined to go long. I've reached the point in my books where I create a "cutting room floor" document from things that editors cut/requested I cut. From my last book I probably will emerge with an entirely new book, two conference papers that will become articles, and at least 1-2 other shorter things. Hell, I intended this comment to be half as long as it turned out.
I struggled to get the PRL that got me my faculty job down to four pages. I cut and cut and cut. I believed that it was within the limit and submitted it. When the paper was published it went onto a fifth page. It was only a couple of lines over and there was an almost completely black page left. All that work to shorten it wasn't needed.
Same. Rarely, rarely, rarely do I come in under required word counts -- and that holds for an 800 word op-ed piece, a 1200 word book review, a 7500 word journal article, or an 80,000 (or 100,000) word book manuscript. I swear, no matter the format, I'm inclined to go long. I've reached the point in my books where I create a "cutting room floor" document from things that editors cut/requested I cut. From my last book I probably will emerge with an entirely new book, two conference papers that will become articles, and at least 1-2 other shorter things. Hell, I intended this comment to be half as long as it turned out.
I struggled to get the PRL that got me my faculty job down to four pages. I cut and cut and cut. I believed that it was within the limit and submitted it. When the paper was published it went onto a fifth page. It was only a couple of lines over and there was an almost completely black page left. All that work to shorten it wasn't needed.
My writing tends to the opposite extreme, 400-800 word pieces.
I do write slightly longer and freer by hand, but typing exaggerate the brevity.