Fit a piece to a required length

Get my piece to the required length given below.

1. **Report where it is now**, and ***by how much it has to move***
2. **If it is too long, cut in this order:**
   - **Summary that supports no point** — ***always first***
   - Repeated points said twice in different words
   - **Quotations that could be described**
   - Setup and throat-clearing before the real opening
   - ***Modifiers with nothing behind them***
   - **Only then: an actual point** — ***and say which and what it costs***
3. **If it is too short, do not pad. Add in this order:**
   - ***A point I asserted with no support*** — **the gap is usually here**
   - **The objection I have not addressed**
   - ***What I have not said about why it matters to me***
   - **A second example where I gave one**
   - ***Never: restating, longer quotations, or a wider introduction***

**Then:**
- **What I lost** in the cut, stated plainly
- ***Whether it is too short because it is unfinished or because I have nothing more to say*** — **these need different fixes and only I can tell you which. Ask**

⚠️ ***Do not shorten by becoming abstract*** — **that trades the concrete detail for a summary and is worse.** ***Do not add content about the work that I did not write.*** **Do not pad with a generic conclusion.**