"But if you aim higher, you must work differently. Instead of stuffing your sentences with straw, you must try steadily to get rid of the padding, to make your sentences lean and tough. If you are really working at it, your first draft will greatly exceed the required total, and then you will work it down."
Then the 500 words becomes a constraint rather than a goal, and constraints make for great writing.
And that's how the limits were originally intended.
"But if you aim higher, you must work differently. Instead of stuffing your sentences with straw, you must try steadily to get rid of the padding, to make your sentences lean and tough. If you are really working at it, your first draft will greatly exceed the required total, and then you will work it down."
Then the 500 words becomes a constraint rather than a goal, and constraints make for great writing.
And that's how the limits were originally intended.