I’m in editing mode now.
Like today, I started with:
Five minutes later I was sitting at the crowded cafe counter, elated that I finally had something to say.
Tighten that up, I thought, and I got:
Two minutes later I was at the crowded cafe counter, finally with something to say.
That was not an improvement, now it was awkward, still had too many words, and now I noticed the intrusive alliteration. Crowded-cafe-counter-something-say.
Two minutes later I was at the cafe counter, at long last with something to say.
Damnit! Long last? More alliteration snuck in there.
Two minutes later I stood at the noisy cafe counter, at long last with something to say.
Can a counter be noisy? Are there other words for a cafe counter that don’t begin with C, L, or S?
Two minutes later I was at the crowded cafe counter. I finally had something to say.
Closer.
Two minutes later I was at the crowded cafe counter. Finally, I had something to say.
That’s when I stopped. No doubt in a month I’ll see that and think, that should be shorter.