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Why You Should Write More Short-Form Articles
It’s not because they’re easy
My June 30-day challenge included a pledge to write one short-form article every day of June. I’m not even half way into the month, and I already love short-form. Here are the main benefits to writing articles of no more than 150 words (including titles).
It trains you to focus
People who were trained as journalists probably don’t need this. After all, they learned to think by the column-inch. But novelists, like me, learned to write with as much detail and elaboration as we wanted. Regular people tend to write with as many asides as they would use when telling the story in person.
With 150 words, there is no room for asides. There’s no room for lush and evocative descriptions. You have to keep on target, and cut everything else.
Editing is harder than writing
I wrote one of my short-form articles in 20 minutes. It was 267 words. It then took me the better part of an hour to cut that down to 150.
Writing is easy. Words flow out in a gushing torrent.
Editing is hard. You have to have a clear idea of what you want to say, and find the cleanest, most concise way of saying it.
