Lean And Mean: Concise Posts Make A Huge Difference!

The internet has changed the way that we write and the way that we read.

Her choice of fashion may not be on the mark (what does that have to do with anything?!), but reading a good online article should be as enjoyable for her as flipping through the pages of a favorite magazine.

Lengthy paragraphs and sentences are out while bulleted paragraphs and numbered lists are in. How did that change come about? For the simple reason that when we view a screen, our eyes tend to scan the text looking for information to jump out at us. Unlike printed copy which can be folded, turned or read while on the potty or in the lazy chair, we tend to place ourselves in front of a big screen or before a laptop perched atop a table at our local coffee shop.

Really now, who do you think is the more comfortable reader? In most cases that would be the person folding the pages of a newspaper who can kick back and relax, taking her time to read the morning news without worrying about spilling coffee on a keyboard or going buggy eye in the process. But then, newspaper readership is disappearing almost as fast as internet participation is growing.

Two Kinds of Writing Styles

So here you have two different styles of writing – one designed for more leisurely and relaxed reading, the other to convey short, but high impact data designed to drive home a point with all the fluff removed.

Don’t get me wrong – there are a number of excellent pieces online that are several thousand words long. In the early days of the internet, I learned to print those kinds of articles out, stapling the pages together and saving the best of the lot. I’m a writer, therefore lengthy articles, short stories, novellas and books are fine with me. But they aren’t fine for mostly everyone else, particularly for the online reader.

How can you best write what you want without droning on and on? That’s easy – write what you want and then pick at it later.

That’s right, if you have something to say, then say it. Don’t worry about article length or trying to adhere to certain restrictions that others are urging you to embrace. I’ve come across many bloggers who worry that they’re being too wordy, leaving out important content to keep their article lengths under control. That’s just wrong – you’re proofreader and editor as well a publisher and writer – you are the one solely responsible for the way that your article reads. Your audience validates your work by subscribing to a feed or by leaving comments.

Cutting Out the Fluff

Now there is a big difference between the article that is 1500 words long and lacking substance versus the 500 word article that says it all. What readers don’t realize is that a good number of articles which may be short and to the point may not have started out that way. In some cases, the writer may have “skinned” her article down to take out excess data or remove fluff, in order to leave the reader with concrete, helpful, concise, but highly effectual information.

To reiterate my point the length of your article doesn’t matter as much as what is inside of it. If you can say what you want to say in 500, 1000 or 2500 words or more while keeping your reader’s attention, then you have succeeded in your endeavor. Cut out the junk and you’ll be left with an article worth reading no matter how many words you used.

See Also — Should You Schedule Your Blog Posts?

Photo Credit: Viktoria Sav

Something Here Seems Different….

…Maybe Even Out Of Place.

Relax, I've made some changes here. Least of which is the "new" theme, but I also pulled in more than 630 articles from my defunct The Article Writer blog.

Regular visitors to Matt’s Musings have probably realized that something here has been changed. The obvious difference is the “new” theme which I installed on Friday, but I also did quite a bit of work behind the scenes as well as off site work which involved pulling in almost all of the articles from my closed down blog, The Article Writer.

I haven’t done the 301 Redirect yet (it works, I’ve tested it) but this blog now contains most of those articles minus a handful of the old categories. Photographs are still linked to the www.thearticlewriter.com images folder, but I plan on uploading those pictures here and redirecting the links accordingly.

A number of people were surprised last May when I suddenly closed down what was then my flagship blog. I simply decided that I needed to redirect my attention elsewhere, particularly to a number of client projects. I’ve always maintained multiple sites of my own, but since the beginning of this year I’ve been thinking of consolidating my work in a bid to be much more effective with what I have.

At present, I manage six blogs but I’m likely to scale back to five when all is said and done. Eventually, my The Article Writer site will not have one blog associated with it as I give The Auto Writer its own site (I own the www.theautowriter.com domain) or merge it with Auto Trends. Yes, I think concentrating on one car blog is much more efficient; besides it takes the burden off of having to regularly update two similar sites which are basically in competition with each other.

For a lot of businesses – big and small – 2009 will be the year of consolidation and pulling back. I think that this makes sense as everyone is trying to figure out ways to cut costs and run more efficiently.

Those of you who work as freelance writers have always been doing that – picking which gigs fit best with what you do while passing over everything else. Like a steady rhythm, you’ve found your beat and are continually looking for ways to work smarter and faster while bringing in the pay.

I should complete the transition from the old blog to Matt’s Musings by the end of this month as I finish notifying my link exchange partners of these changes. A number of my online friends have kept their links in place to The Article Writer just as I have for them. Now, I want to give these same folks the opportunity to find me here, actively updating this site on a fairly regular basis.

I am planning on covering freelance writing topics on Matt’s Musings as I had been doing on The Article Writer, but not as consistently as I did previously. This blog has a much broader reach to it, one where I cover issues as far ranging as politics, small business development, SEO, societal trends, human interest, even the occasional public service article. Truly a mixed bag and hopefully something that you’ll find of interest as well.