Mark Twain famously said that he’d never write “metropolis” for 7 cents when he could write “city” for the same fee, and it stands as good advice for writers looking to make economical word choices. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Mark Twain Writing Quote”
Grant, I know what a big Mark Twain fan you are.
So I wanted to share this quotation from him.
He wrote, I never write metropolis for seven cents when I can write city and get paid the same.
Now he’s making a joke there.
Right.
He’s a freelance writer.
He gets paid per word.
Yeah.
But his idea is that you use the smaller word when you can rather than showing off for no real added value.
Right. Value is exactly the word I was thinking of.
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