I go with shorter ...

Maxine Clarke at Petrona discusses Alain de Botton, Scott Turow and Stephen King: Saturday party. Of de Botton on revision, she says "I was surprised to read his surprise that his revised version of his book was shorter than his original, as surely the revision process would tend to make a piece shorter not longer?" I am too, but then, like Maxine, I spend a lot of my time making things shorter for publication. I know shorter is harder and longer is often simply looser, not fuller.