Wriging Thread: Long or Short?

Long or Short?

kweenkong — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 12:30:13

Just as Strunk & White advises about varying sentence lengths, I strive for the same "texture" among my blog posts.

Most are long-ish, but I force myself to throw in shorter posts here and there. Sometimes the short one are most compelling.

Long or Short?

Summer1002 — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 08:03:59

sometimes they are 25 words, sometimes they are 1 word. I love one word sentences.....they are usually the most powerful, but yes, most of the time they do need a neighboring sentence to keep them company.

Long or Short?

Gnorb — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 08:01:05

Long or short: it matters not, but every word should tell.

Long or Short?

BonitainPink — Sun, 18 Feb 2007 13:27:24

Short and Sweet.
I tend to break that rule every now and then though, I must admit. But I do try.

Long or Short?

eternalsword — Sun, 18 Feb 2007 09:46:32

Whatever I have to say, I say in as few words as I know how. If I have a long post, it is either because I have a lot of different things to say or it takes many words to say one thing.

Long or Short?

bloglily — Sat, 17 Feb 2007 21:11:00

I think the topic probably determines the length of the post, as Polaris says, and then it's up to you to prune it so you've left in only what's needed.

Long or Short?

Josh — Sat, 17 Feb 2007 20:29:16

My posts tend to be on the short side of things. I've actually thought in the past that my entries are too short. I try to go back and think of more to add, but I figure if I'm struggling to think of anything else to say, its time to click Publish. I've said what I wanted to say.

Long or Short?

Michael — Sat, 17 Feb 2007 03:23:30

Actually what you do not know is that this is the exact same conversation that Lily and I had back in the old days of Best Blog on Wordpress.

She was always the talkative one posting all the time while lazy old me always kept my post count to a minimum. Ah those were the days.

Long or Short?

Kamigoroshi — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 17:14:30

Well, it's all about your writing style and how well you do it.

I used to write really long winding posts that beat around the bush. Nowadays I just shorten it to get straight to the point. It might not be a one liner, but it's still me.

Blogging and the eventual evolution of the way you write is inevitable. You don't lose readership, you just grow with them.

Long or Short?

Stuart — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 16:07:34

Long. Some might argue too long :-)

I do try to get in shorter posts, but most turn into 1,500 words or so...

Long or Short?

Usernamejohnbakeronline — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 15:56:33

Short

Long or Short?

polaris — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 13:23:32

My posts tend to be longer now than when I started out. I don't bother about the length beforehand. Usually, when all that I want to say has been said, the posts are longer rather than shorter. Then I prune some excess verbiage which comes from my inability to express something correctly the first time, and from not being a native speaker of English.

Long or Short?

Oli — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 13:20:58

When writing articles that have a technical nature, I've found that the insanely longer posts tend to not do as well as their more succinct counterparts.

That may just be down to a fickle audience but if I can say something with pictures, bullet points or statistics, opposed to prose, it will get more interaction. I therefore assume more people bother reading the shorter things.

That's not to say I limit myself. I'll write everything I need to say, and if I think it's too long as it is, I'll leave it a day or two (even a few months if I forget) and come back to it with fresh eyes and edit down what I'm saying.

Long or Short?

chris — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 13:12:50

I've read that the author Chuck Palahniuk will shave his head when rewriting drafts of his books to remind himself that nothing is so good it can't be cut out.

Long or Short?

Cas — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 12:58:29

I don't set limits to what I write - a post is done when it's done. I've also never been concise in my life, so things tend to lean toward the 'longer' end of the spectrum. My longest post to date hovered around the 3000 word mark which was actually too long for blog format, though I posted it anyway because I'd written the damn thing and needed to share!

All that being said, one of my threads with the most comments on it was only one line long!

Long or Short?

winnopeg — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 11:34:03

Long posts, short paragraphs is what I find ideal. I mostly end up with long posts, long paragraphs, however.

Long or Short?

AdrianL — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 11:31:22

Mine end up as long as they need to be, and rarely longer.

Long or Short?

chris — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 09:49:59

I spend most of my writing time chopping things down in length. I suppose it's because I've realized how much people tend to ramble on. Of course, there are times when long articles are needed and are better for the situation. But most of the time, I wish people's written work was shorter, not longer.

Long or Short?

bloglily — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 09:38:52

Hey Michael -- It's entirely your fault we're having these conversations in public now. You're the one who told me about 9rules. You must have known that the moment I got here I wouldn't be able to shut up!

Scrivs -- Thanks for that link. He sounds like a guy who could make chewing gum interesting. I'm going to pay attention to that five paragraph thing. Litbloggers tend to like their words, so you see more longer posts in that community. Still, brevity being the soul of wit and all it's not bad to alternate long with short, or let some time go by between big posts.

Cooper & Kamigaroshi -- I think you're on to something. Generally if you're writing about something you want to talk about, that works just fine in the "spending limit" department.

Long or Short?

Kamigoroshi — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 09:36:00

It could be one line. It could be a few pages. It doesn't matter for me, as long as I'm writing exactly how I feel...it just flows away with me.

Long or Short?

Anonymous — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 09:17:40

Mine are all over the place I have no spending limit, no rules.

Long or Short?

Scrivs — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 09:03:33

All depends on what I am talking about. I almost always find though that when people write long blog posts (more than 5 paragraphs) they are just talking to talk then and aren't actually saying anything worthwhile. When you start to get that long you have to have the ability to keep the person interested. John Gruber is great at that I think.

Of course you are good at it as well bloglily ;-)

Long or Short?

Michael — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 08:59:16

We've gone over this Lily. :) I usually like to keep things as short as possible. Short and sweet gets the job done.

Long or Short?

bloglily — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 08:49:55

Blog posts, I mean.

My own are long. I've never met a word I didn't want to use, or a sentence that didn't need another to keep it company, or a paragraph that wasn't more comfortable being in a gang of paragraphs.

You get the idea. What are your posts like, length-wise?

This is my very first Note. I'll keep it short.