Don't forget the tricks of only one space after a period. You'll be surprised how many characters that will save you. Also, make sure there are no characters at the end of your paragraphs. I would NOT replace words with symbols - that's just tacky and unprofessional. Ask for an English professor's help... or anyone else for that matter. I was almost 400 characters over and my husband helped me cut 520 characters out just by rewording (and it was better when he was done with it).