diff --git a/lib/clojurefmt.js b/lib/clojurefmt.js
index 520dfc0..392fd8b 100644
--- a/lib/clojurefmt.js
+++ b/lib/clojurefmt.js
@@ -702,6 +702,7 @@
 
     let idx = 0
     let outTxt = ''
+    let outputTxtContainsChars = false
 
     // FIXME: need a running paren stack of openers (who are not closed)
     // use this on a newline to determine indentation level
@@ -715,6 +716,7 @@
       const nextTextNode = nextNodeWithText(nodesArr, inc(idx))
       const isLastNode = inc(idx) >= numNodes
 
+      const currentNodeIsWhitespace = isWhitespaceNode(node)
       const currentNodeIsNewline = isNewlineNode(node)
       let skipPrintingThisNode = false
 
@@ -740,7 +742,12 @@
       }
 
       // remove whitespace before a closer (remove-surrounding-whitespace?)
-      if (isWhitespaceNode(node) && !isNewlineNode(node) && isParenCloser(nextTextNode)) {
+      if (currentNodeIsWhitespace && !isNewlineNode(node) && isParenCloser(nextTextNode)) {
+        skipPrintingThisNode = true
+      }
+
+      // do not print any initial whitespace nodes
+      if (currentNodeIsWhitespace && !outputTxtContainsChars) {
         skipPrintingThisNode = true
       }
 
@@ -794,6 +801,7 @@
         // add the text of this node to the output String
         if (!skipPrintingThisNode) {
           outTxt = strConcat(outTxt, node.text)
+          outputTxtContainsChars = true
         }
 
         if (addSpaceAfterThisNode) {
diff --git a/test/format.test.js b/test/format.test.js
index 171b38f..70ca282 100644
--- a/test/format.test.js
+++ b/test/format.test.js
@@ -66,20 +66,20 @@ test('All test_format/ cases should have unique names', () => {
   expect(uniqueTestCaseNames.size).toBe(allTestCases.length)
 })
 
+// dev convenience: set this to true and add specific test cases
+// only those cases will run
 const onlyRunCertainTests = false
 const certainTests = new Set()
-// certainTests.add('Simple Indentation')
-certainTests.add('Reader conditional splicing syntax')
+certainTests.add('Rule 3 Indentation')
 
 const ignoreSomeTests = true
 const ignoreTests = new Set()
-ignoreTests.add('Reduce Indentation')
 ignoreTests.add('Rule 3 Indentation')
 
 allTestCases.forEach(testCase => {
   let runThisTest = true
   if (onlyRunCertainTests && !certainTests.has(testCase.name)) runThisTest = false
-  if (ignoreSomeTests && ignoreTests.has(testCase.name)) runThisTest = false
+  else if (ignoreSomeTests && ignoreTests.has(testCase.name)) runThisTest = false
 
   if (runThisTest) {
     test(testCase.filename + ': ' + testCase.name, () => {