One of the most common editorial refrains is “this needs to be tighter.” Typically, this means too many words and ideas are jumbled together and the underlying point is unclear. The writing is not concise. Improving conciseness, however, is difficult because the problem is caused by a host of factors that are hard to identify and therefore easily overlooked, especially by early career researchers. In 2020, I wrote an essay about what it means to write concisely and outlined 10 rules, with examples, to help scientists tighten their prose. This essay has gone on to be widely read and downloaded. In this presentation, I’ll review the recommendations of the essay, how it came to fruition, and why I still aspire every day to be more concise in my scientific writing and encourage others to do the same.