Lmao, Holly. Yes, I agree that a piece should be as long as needed to communicate a "thing" to the reader. Of course, that presupposes that the writer actually has a point they're trying to make or a story they're trying to tell. Too often, they don't. I mean -- not really. A
It's like a lot of people think the internet is their journal and short form seems to get more of that than long form ever did. Not that people don't ramble on in longform, because they do. But short form almost seems to invite it.
Some of the newer stuff of Medium feels half-assed—like a collection of thoughts without a conclusion. Brain farts—that’s a great name for them. That type of reading is a big turn-off. It feels like a waste of time. So no, I haven’t tried writing like that.
Writing simpler sentences is HARD work! I’m proofing my paperback at the moment. The original manuscript started out at 115,000 words. The final draft is 79,000 and that included the additions of a long poem and another chapter. I didn’t drop any chapters but did merge two and drop a few scenes. It was such hard work to whittle it down. Some chapters took nearly 40 hours to wrangle into their final form. I’m hoping I can get faster at it.
It’s wild to think the hours that’s gone in some beautiful pieces of work. Amazing.
Last sentence is so true. To Kill A Mockingbird was rewritten entirely four times. A simple sentence is hard, but a simple paragraph is, too. So often an entire paragraph could be said in a sentence or two. You're right -- it IS hard work to condense into what really needs to be there. lol. Hope you get faster at it, too. I have not gotten any faster yet. lol.
I've played around with short form to test out titles. I create a several short forms that link to another story that I want to share and see how the different titles do. It has helped me be creative and improved my title writing.
No doubt!! There would be almost no read time on a haiku unless you follow it with a story. I've done that a couple of times and it worked better than a haiku alone.
I've only done a couple of short-form pieces that as for views and reads were complete flops, but that could be due to the publication, my topics, my titles, who knows? They were useful writing exercises, though. As you and others have said, you have to work harder to write shorter. So, it is fun and interesting to give it a try.
I think it is also interesting to look at short-form from a reader's perspective. I have read a few short-form pieces that I enjoyed and found useful. They were one quick tip about something, so. the bite-sized length worked well. Mostly though, as a reader, I prefer longer pieces. I am either reading to be entertained or to learn about something. Either way, I'd rather have 4-7 minute pieces for those purposes.
I've written a few. I don't expect to make any money from them, though. It's good for rants where you get the point across pretty quickly. I wish I got paid for my responses to comments. Some of them have gotten more engagement than many of my stories!
When I started blogging more years ago than I want to count, I imposed a 500 word maximum on myself (which I later relaxed). That gave me a lot of practice with being concise (I haven't mastered conciseness, but I'm much better than before I started blogging, lol). In order to make a 500 word maximum piece work, the most important thing is to pick ONE main idea is and stick to it. No detours. If I don't have space for an idea I really want to write about, then I give that second idea its own post.
Haha, I love short-form and long-form and a really well-done story or news piece. Seldom do I find anything long-form, even well done, that's worth my time. I have to be interested in the topic and the style has to please me. A lot of short-form leaves me flat. But most that I read are entertaining and brighten my day. Perhaps I like brain farts.
The views depend on the title, right? That's how I know it's a great title. The reads - meh - the short forms are like a poem. No one is there long enough. But sometimes people click through to the other article and that increases read time there. Thanks for asking.
Good point on the title. I sometimes wonder if people look at the read time and use that as a deciding factor, too. Unless I know I'm reading poetry, I tend to prefer a longer read myself.
Do you remember when I wrote about that guy who paired poetry with essays and art? I can't recall his name, but it sticks in my head. I'd love to play with that, but poetry only shows up when I have time to sit and let it brew. Sometimes I wish I had more of that.
Most of what I write is indeed short form, these days. Specifically, poetry - haiku and tanka. I do it because I enjoy it.
Most of what I read at Medium is NOT short form (other than the poetry of other writers). Most of what I read online in mainstream media news articles and editorials vary in length.
And, I still read books - primarily nonfiction, 300-500 hundred pages in length.
Books are still my favorite, too. Anything online is read in little bites when I need a break from code or work, but not long enough to open a book. If I could figure out how to get paid a living wage reading books, I'd be the happiest person, ever. lol
lol. Now I need to go back and find it. It was old, old. Like really long ago. He was keeping a journal as he traveled and couldn't decide if he wanted to make sketches, write about his travels or write poetry. So he did them all and became somewhat famous in his time. It was just a mention in a post about poetry, but might be fun to actually dig into the work. Yup - need to go back and find it. When I find it and write about it, I'll tag you. :)
At this point, I'm mainly searching for potential pieces for my publication (which is long-form) so the very short reads don't make it. That said I do sometimes pick up a short read just for fun. Like you noticed, I usually don't get much out of it; it's usually a clickbait title I've opened to see what they're talking about. Of course there are some gems—where I guess the author has actually worked to trim it down rather than the "dump and publish" you're describing. Such authors/articles aren't easy to find though! (Poems are different. They're nice).
Each week I post a (mostly) new painting (said to be worth a thousand words) on my art blog. In order to conform to the blog title, 1150 Words by Charlene Brown, each post is supposed to be only 150 words long. I imposed this limit to make it more likely people would actually read the thing. I think it's working.
Lmao, Holly. Yes, I agree that a piece should be as long as needed to communicate a "thing" to the reader. Of course, that presupposes that the writer actually has a point they're trying to make or a story they're trying to tell. Too often, they don't. I mean -- not really. A
It's like a lot of people think the internet is their journal and short form seems to get more of that than long form ever did. Not that people don't ramble on in longform, because they do. But short form almost seems to invite it.
Second sentence. lol. I know the ones you mean.
Substack had the hiccups.
LMAO
Yes - well said - "To me, writing ought to be whatever length it needs to be in order to communicate a thing to the reader."
For some people, I'd like to add "and no longer" -- lol.
Some of the newer stuff of Medium feels half-assed—like a collection of thoughts without a conclusion. Brain farts—that’s a great name for them. That type of reading is a big turn-off. It feels like a waste of time. So no, I haven’t tried writing like that.
Writing simpler sentences is HARD work! I’m proofing my paperback at the moment. The original manuscript started out at 115,000 words. The final draft is 79,000 and that included the additions of a long poem and another chapter. I didn’t drop any chapters but did merge two and drop a few scenes. It was such hard work to whittle it down. Some chapters took nearly 40 hours to wrangle into their final form. I’m hoping I can get faster at it.
It’s wild to think the hours that’s gone in some beautiful pieces of work. Amazing.
Last sentence is so true. To Kill A Mockingbird was rewritten entirely four times. A simple sentence is hard, but a simple paragraph is, too. So often an entire paragraph could be said in a sentence or two. You're right -- it IS hard work to condense into what really needs to be there. lol. Hope you get faster at it, too. I have not gotten any faster yet. lol.
I've played around with short form to test out titles. I create a several short forms that link to another story that I want to share and see how the different titles do. It has helped me be creative and improved my title writing.
That's good to hear. How do views and reads compare on short form compared to longer posts?
As a poet, I can only say haikus can be hellish. As a writer, I took on a challenge recently to write a six word short story. TOUGH!
No doubt!! There would be almost no read time on a haiku unless you follow it with a story. I've done that a couple of times and it worked better than a haiku alone.
I've only done a couple of short-form pieces that as for views and reads were complete flops, but that could be due to the publication, my topics, my titles, who knows? They were useful writing exercises, though. As you and others have said, you have to work harder to write shorter. So, it is fun and interesting to give it a try.
I think it is also interesting to look at short-form from a reader's perspective. I have read a few short-form pieces that I enjoyed and found useful. They were one quick tip about something, so. the bite-sized length worked well. Mostly though, as a reader, I prefer longer pieces. I am either reading to be entertained or to learn about something. Either way, I'd rather have 4-7 minute pieces for those purposes.
I find it interesting how many readers say they want a little more substance. That's interesting to me.
I've written a few. I don't expect to make any money from them, though. It's good for rants where you get the point across pretty quickly. I wish I got paid for my responses to comments. Some of them have gotten more engagement than many of my stories!
lol, Denise. Me, too. Some of my comments get so much traction I wish I could put them in the partner program.
When I started blogging more years ago than I want to count, I imposed a 500 word maximum on myself (which I later relaxed). That gave me a lot of practice with being concise (I haven't mastered conciseness, but I'm much better than before I started blogging, lol). In order to make a 500 word maximum piece work, the most important thing is to pick ONE main idea is and stick to it. No detours. If I don't have space for an idea I really want to write about, then I give that second idea its own post.
Right? No room for detours in a 500 word story, that's for sure.
Haha, I love short-form and long-form and a really well-done story or news piece. Seldom do I find anything long-form, even well done, that's worth my time. I have to be interested in the topic and the style has to please me. A lot of short-form leaves me flat. But most that I read are entertaining and brighten my day. Perhaps I like brain farts.
Maybe you just read people who are good at short form? :)
The views depend on the title, right? That's how I know it's a great title. The reads - meh - the short forms are like a poem. No one is there long enough. But sometimes people click through to the other article and that increases read time there. Thanks for asking.
Good point on the title. I sometimes wonder if people look at the read time and use that as a deciding factor, too. Unless I know I'm reading poetry, I tend to prefer a longer read myself.
Ditto. I follow virtually every poem w/ some explication - still a short read time but oh well. :)
Do you remember when I wrote about that guy who paired poetry with essays and art? I can't recall his name, but it sticks in my head. I'd love to play with that, but poetry only shows up when I have time to sit and let it brew. Sometimes I wish I had more of that.
Love the quotes, especially Pascal’s.
Most of what I write is indeed short form, these days. Specifically, poetry - haiku and tanka. I do it because I enjoy it.
Most of what I read at Medium is NOT short form (other than the poetry of other writers). Most of what I read online in mainstream media news articles and editorials vary in length.
And, I still read books - primarily nonfiction, 300-500 hundred pages in length.
Books are still my favorite, too. Anything online is read in little bites when I need a break from code or work, but not long enough to open a book. If I could figure out how to get paid a living wage reading books, I'd be the happiest person, ever. lol
Ha-ha-ha! Funny gal.
Now my old lady brain is stumped...BUT I think that's so cool. Essay plus ART!!!!!! THANKS (idea for book, Mme Editor)
lol. Now I need to go back and find it. It was old, old. Like really long ago. He was keeping a journal as he traveled and couldn't decide if he wanted to make sketches, write about his travels or write poetry. So he did them all and became somewhat famous in his time. It was just a mention in a post about poetry, but might be fun to actually dig into the work. Yup - need to go back and find it. When I find it and write about it, I'll tag you. :)
Perfect! But NO stress! Xmas etc is stress enough xox
At this point, I'm mainly searching for potential pieces for my publication (which is long-form) so the very short reads don't make it. That said I do sometimes pick up a short read just for fun. Like you noticed, I usually don't get much out of it; it's usually a clickbait title I've opened to see what they're talking about. Of course there are some gems—where I guess the author has actually worked to trim it down rather than the "dump and publish" you're describing. Such authors/articles aren't easy to find though! (Poems are different. They're nice).
Each week I post a (mostly) new painting (said to be worth a thousand words) on my art blog. In order to conform to the blog title, 1150 Words by Charlene Brown, each post is supposed to be only 150 words long. I imposed this limit to make it more likely people would actually read the thing. I think it's working.