The Line Between Compression and Distortion
Launch library · evergreen read
Every true story requires compression, since no piece of writing can include every detail of what actually happened, and choosing what to leave out is an unavoidable part of the craft rather than a compromise a writer should feel any real guilt about making at all.
Compression becomes distortion the moment what is left out changes a reader's understanding of what actually happened, rather than simply making the account more efficient to read, and that line is worth checking deliberately rather than trusting the matter entirely to instinct alone in the moment.
A useful test is asking whether someone who witnessed the full event would recognise the compressed version as fair, even while noticing what had been trimmed, since fairness, not completeness, is really the standard compression has to meet. This test works well precisely because it does not depend on counting every omitted detail, it depends on whether the shape of what remains still honestly reflects what actually took place, according to someone who was genuinely there.