This post was written by Jennifer

Brevity Is A Gift I Wasn’t Born With

I’ve never been brief. I think a lot, talk forever, and as it turns out, I write massive amounts.

I can write concisely. For example, if I have a boss, college professor, or magazine editor breathing down my neck about word counts; sure, I can be nice and succinct.

However, give me a blog, with no word count limit, and I swear, I just go to town. Talk, talk, talk. On and on. Much like I’m doing right now. Of course, longer posts have their place, but not all the time, and not if the topic can and should be shortened.

If you think, talk, and write long, your best bet is as follows: Fake it. Fake that you’re short winded. Right now, by telling you that I have to fake it, I’m not faking it, because frankly, this could go un-said. I’m assuming you’re assuming that I do fake it, or I wouldn’t have suggested you do so.

The above - TOO long winded.

To fake it, try mind mapping. I’m not all fancy with paper mind mapping, but I will talk topics out in my head.

Here’s an example: My idea for a topic is green weddings. Lord, that’s way too broad. Here’s how I work it out; I come up with a list of related topics, choose one, and then narrow that one down.

I go from green weddings to..

Short, sweet, perfect for links, and it leaves all those other topics I can write about later untouched. I could have shortened it more, but I’m happy with this.

Do I always manage to fake it? Um no, please refer to the above post title. I am who I am. People either deal with my sometimes longer posts, or maybe they don’t read me. Whatever. Part of the beauty of blogging is that it takes all kinds. However, I do try, about 80% of the time to be shorter than I’d normally be left to my own not-analyzed devices. I can get more work done in less time when I blog short, my readers are happier, and mind mapping allows me to always have a great list of topics sitting on the back burner.

Now was this post short enough? There’s also a too short mind you. No one wants to read this post:

“Keep readers happy and increase blog traffic by mind mapping for short blog posts.”

Or maybe they do? I don’t, but what do you think?

June 11, 2008 | Filed Under Blogging for Others 

Comments

3 Responses to “Brevity Is A Gift I Wasn’t Born With”

  1. MJ Ray on June 11th, 2008 4:57 am

    There seems to be an audience for short feeds too, which is why bookmarks feeds and twitter seem to be prospering.

  2. Lori on June 11th, 2008 8:45 am

    I find myself losing interest in long posts even if it is good, well-written information. There is something about my attention span and web writing. I try to remember this when I post to my own blog. I try not to go on and on even though I could easily do so.

  3. Jennifer on June 11th, 2008 1:30 pm

    MJ Ray, good point. Although, I hope people’s attention spans aren’t going to get so low that they can only handle Twitter sized bites.

    Lori, I know. Studies show that web readers like short and sweet and that they normally won’t even scroll down. That’s why I try so hard to be brief, when I can. I usually manage, just not 100% of the time.

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