Lots and lots of words
Words fascinate me. They always have.
The etymologies. The synonyms with various shades of meaning on the same topic. The vast, ripe field of opportunities for dad humor. And lots more.
In many cases, lots and lots more.
I stand accused
I recently had an opportunity to share brief thoughts at our young pastor’s funeral. He had, when he asked me before he passed, been insistent that I keep my comments to five minutes. His wife emphasized the same after he passed and as the service drew near. And, as I prepared my remarks, my wife said she doubted I’d be able to stay within the prescribed limit: “You speak publicly for a living – sometimes for hours,” she said – or something along those lines. But the message was clear: Eric, you talk lots.1
Or, to take advantage of the wide range of synonyms: Eric, you are so, so loquacious, and verbose, and prolix, and voluble, and maybe even garrulous.2
Guilty as charged
I’m aware my tendencies, in speaking and in writing (and likely in thinking) go beyond mere volume: I also tend to use a string of adjectives when maybe one or two would suffice (though that also means I would miss some of the subtle nuances of meaning I intend to convey); and, significantly, I think and write and speak with lots of asides, usually captured in text as parenthetical comments and sometimes (when I’m especially inspired) as a parenthetical comment embedded in another parenthetical comment. And some of my sentences are really long. And possibly hyper-abstract.
How to think about our communication
A recent conversation about loquacity and other communication challenges brought a useful perspective to mind. And it’s one I need to do better with.
Whenever I have a communication opportunity – a one-on-one with the boss, a presentation to the board, a eulogy at a funeral, a gentle correction for a toddler – I need to view myself as a steward of the message and of the opportunity with the audience.
Some thought – possibly half a second, maybe half an hour or more – will help me organize my thoughts to steward the message and the opportunity well. I can decide ahead of time how to calibrate several things that are vital for the effectiveness of the encounter: my tone, the level of abstraction to employ, how much to say, how much to listen, whether to start with the conclusion or the analysis, and more.
When I pause to think and thoughtfully calibrate all of the above, I’m more likely to accomplish what I (we!) need to come from the communication opportunity. And the steward aspect of the perspective is essential: it’s not just about me; it’s about both/all of us, and about others possibly downstream.3
So there’s perspective number one: I need, in all of my communication, to be a steward of the message and of the opportunity with the audience.4
Solomon’s perspective
As I’ve been reading through the book of Proverbs recently, I’ve been noting how much King Solomon has to say about communication. Verse after verse about powerful communication, foolish speech, listening to instruction, and more.
But one specific verse provides a concise, bracing indication of what Solomon thinks about hyper-loquacity:
Even fools are thought wise if they keep silent, and discerning if they hold their tongues. (Proverbs 17:28; NIV)5
Consider this view:
Either extreme here is…extreme. And most of our communication flow sits somewhere around the middle of the distribution curve.
Solomon counsels that we skew to the left side of The Norm:
Why might the skew away from loquacity – and even from The Norm – be advisable? Several possibilities:
- The more we are talking, the less we are listening.
- Talking is risky; words have effects – often unintended and outsized effects.6
- In communication, quantity does not correlate with understanding and clarity. We’ve all experienced it: someone goes on and on and everyone else in the conversation tunes out – with eyes glazed over and minds very much elsewhere. At scale, flow guarantees obfuscation.
It’s something to think about
As we communicate, let’s keep both perspectives in mind: we’re stewards of our communication and communication opportunities; and less might indeed be more, depending on the setting. I’m endeavoring to do better at both.7
Eric R. Alexander
May 2026
Churchill on Brevity
from The Splendid and the Vile by Erik Larson
Amid a rising tide of urgent war matters, [Churchill] found time to address a minute to the members of his War Cabinet on a subject dear to him: the length and writing style of the reports that arrived in his black box each day.
Headed, appropriately enough, by the succinct title “BREVITY,” the minute began: “To do our work, we all have to read a mass of papers. Nearly all of them are far too long. This wastes time, while energy has to be spent in looking for the essential points.”
He set out four ways for his ministers and their staffs to improve their reports. First, he wrote, reports should “set out the main points in a series of short, crisp paragraphs.” If the report involved discussions of complicated matters of statistical analysis, this should be placed in an appendix.
Often, he observed, a full report could be dispensed with entirely, in favor of an aide-mémoire, “consisting of headings only, which can be expanded orally if needed.”
Finally, he attacked the cumbersome prose that so often marked official reports: “Let us have an end to phrases such as these,” he wrote, and quoted two offenders:
“It is also of importance to bean in mind the following considerations…”
“Consideration should be given to the possibility of carrying into effect…”
He wrote: “Most of these woolly phrases are mere padding, which can be left out altogether, or replaced by a single word. Let us not shrink from using the short expressive phrase, even if it is conversational.”
The resulting prose, he wrote, “may at first seem rough as compared with the flat surface of officialese jargon. But the saving of time will be great, while the discipline of setting out the real points concisely will prove an aid to clear thinking.”8
No A.I was employed (or harmed) in the creation of this content – aside from ChatGPT assistance creating the distribution curve graphics.
© 2026, Six Arrows Consulting. All rights reserved.
1 The first reviewer who got ahold of the manuscript for my book (coming out in about two months) said much the same. And much more emphatically. (And, regarding the funeral remarks: I practiced ahead of time and clocked in at 4:50 +/- each time – and stayed close to that on the day…and that’s four minutes and 50 seconds, not hours and minutes, respectively.)
2 And then there’s this borderline disgusting synonym for loquacity: logorrhea (a tendency to extreme loquacity).
3 Two extreme hypothetical examples of dreadfully poor calibration: (1) “Hey, remember that conversation a while back when I asked whether you’d paid our property insurance bill yet? And then when I pointed out the oily rags piled up in the corner of the garage? Well, I just got back from the store – they were out of 2%, by the way – and, gosh, I’m glad I parked in front instead of back by the garage because, well, remember those oily rags, they apparently paired up with some ignition source (maybe the mice in the garage have been smoking cigarettes again?) and, you know, I think we should consider evaluating whether right about now could be a good time to, I don’t know, leave?! But do grab your check book first; we probably need to pay that insurance bill really soon.”; and (2) “Don’t” (when a colleague is facing a significant ethical dilemma and would benefit from some frank counsel re: alternatives and consequences, including harm to others, reputation, risks to employment and employability, etc.)
4 Pausing here for feedback: how well am I stewarding this communication opportunity with you?
5 And the preceding verse is similarly strong: “Whoever restrains his words has knowledge…” (ESV). A secular twist on v.28, sometimes misattributed to Abraham Lincoln of Mark Twain, goes like this: “It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.”).
6 See James 3 for extended thoughts on that truth.
7 But early indications aren’t exactly encouraging: this article is at the 17th percentile of word count for all my blog articles to date. Not horrible, but not exactly my most concise.
8 Erik Larson, The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz (Crown/Random House, 2020), 154-155.