Little Words, Big Meaning

Sep 6, 2007

Photography: Small Bee-Eater 01 by Enigmatic-Halcyon

There’s a segregation between two types of content across the web. Content with lasting value, enduring use, and lots of meaning, tends to come in big packages. Its opposite — content which is disposable, easily consumed and discarded, entertaining once and not again — is often bite-sized.

This binary is founded on a misguided assumption. The success of Seth Godin’s blog is proof that length is not a prerequisite for usefulness, that less words does not equal more disposability. A Brief Message — a blog containing meaningful design articles under 200 words — is founded on the same principle.

Often, the less words we have to work with, the better the result. Every single word is made to count. In a Web 2.0 world, where all of us have too many choices and not enough time, this is more important than ever.

There are many occasions for length, but the ability to write short articles packed with meaning is a valuable one.

Here are some things to try, to help develop this skill:

Can you say something meaningful in under 200 words?
Can you boil your next article down to half its size without losing any meaning?

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9 Comments, Comment or Ping

Bradly Fletchall

I love this concept. I try and keep most of my posts short as well. I have to work at it sometimes as I often find myself rambling on about things. So first I write. Then I make cuts. Then I publish.

Sep 6th, 2007
skellie

Hi Bradly — it’s a great skill to have, and one I know I myself need to work on. Most of my posts are probably longer than they could be!

Sep 6th, 2007
pablopabla

I think my posts are not too long, are they? Although I must admit that the sentences are lengthy, I guess that’s how lawyers tend to get carried away sometimes. LOL!

Sep 7th, 2007
Mark

I admit that some of my posts are a bit too long sometimes. This is a timely article, Skellie. Thanks for sharing.

Sep 7th, 2007
skellie

@ Pablo & Mark: There isn’t anything wrong with long posts, but I think the ability to counterbalance these with short and meaningful articles is an important one to develop. I myself definitely need to work on this skill

Sep 7th, 2007
Joanne

I’m a big fan of re-reading things and this is one post I should probably re-read more often.

I tend to get into this upward trend of longer and longer posts. I need to catch myself and consciously attempt to make the next post shorter.

And I believe one of your previous articles discussed how each post should be written as if for a new reader every time…I’ve applied that same approach to the posts on my main page by asking myself, “What does this collection of posts say about me? What image is being projected? How varied are my topics, post-lengths, etc. Would it make a new reader scroll down to continue to read the next post and then click on my Previous Posts link?” I have to continue actively trying this because I’m not sure yet if my slow but steady increase of feed readers/site visitors was due to this type of writing mentality or discovering new networks of bloggers.

Haha, ironically I write this comment as my last blog post was over a 1,000 words (for Blog Action Day) and as I leave you a COMMENT close to 200 words…oh, dear!

Oct 17th, 2007
cronopio

As a rule, I write blog entries of 100 words exactly. It’s a good constraint; it’s surprising how much you can say and how succinctly you can say it.
A famous writer once ended a letter, “I’m sorry this letter is so long, I didn’t have time to shorten it.”
There’s the rub. Making your copy short is a craft. Unlike printed materials, the Web imposes no physical size constraints. Pages have infinite length.
I also haven’t found a MovableType plugin yet that counts words for me as I write my entry.
And yes, this comment is 100 words long.

Nov 23rd, 2007