When a publication's guidelines provide a maximum word length, please know that editors have specific pages to fill and they know how many words are needed to fill that space.  Do not believe for a moment that the editor has time to cutt 500 words from your manuscript when he/she has already stated in guidelines that 1000 words is the limit. My article under the title above was published in ByLine Magazine about two years ago and  a somewhat longer version by the on-line newsletter, "Working Writer" early this year.  The editor responded to my submission with "thanks for giving step by step details."  She had recently received information from a reader decrying the need to cut his article–not one sent to W.W. but to another publication that turned his piece down because it was too long.  Heed those guidelines.  Yes, you can cut.  I just cut 300 words out of a humor piece to get it down to the 550 limit for the Erma Bombeck contest.  I believe the piece is better for the cuts I made.  Don't try to do it in one editing session.  Do as much as you can.  Put the piece aside and go at it again the next day. 

Then, here is the other side of that coin:  My agent notified me that the novel she is trying to market for me received praise from a publisher, but he finally turned it downs saying "it isn't llong enough!!".