If you’re a devoted reader of this blog (which, ahem, I’m sure you are), you should know by now that most of my blog posts are on the wordy side. Or as I prefer to say, delightfully verbose.
I regularly hit 1,000 words or more in a single post. It goes against all conventional blog wisdom, but I just can’t help it. I love to take the long, windy road. Writing is about the journey for me, not the destination.
But as I’ve moved into a new phase in my life, I’ve thought that, perhaps, some readers don’t want to join me on my roller coaster of adverbs, adjectives, and alliteration (I loooove alliteration). This conjunction junction is malfunctioning (Love. Alliteration. Obviously).
And truthfully, it’s not so fun for me either. Blog posts take me days to write. My perfectionist tendencies flare up most when I’m writing. It puts a lot of pressure and stress on something that I love to do and should honestly, be fun for me. So, I’m going to take away most of time and word count and see what happens to my writing. See if it makes me more productive and happier.
I need to figure out who I am as a writer without the words. Sounds counterintuitive, I know. But I’ll admit that I hide behind my words sometimes. As a grad student and teacher, I am well aware that you can spend so many words in an effort not to say something. So I’m taking away thousands little comforts and making an effort to put myself out there.
So here’s to trying something new.
To getting out of my comfort zone.
To challenge myself and find some clarity.
To make my writing process easier.
And having fun with it.
In the coming weeks, be on the look out for these posts. It won’t be every time I post, but I hope to keep up the series for a few months or until I can’t take it anymore. Whichever comes first.
And in honor of clarity, this entire post could be summed up as, I’m going to write shorter, ya’ll! Champagne and sour gummy worms for all!
{Readers–Any topics I should cover?}
PS: The word count for this is 382. Probably my shortest post ever. Woo!
I enjoy reading your blog but often can’t make the time to read a post when it happens, so it’s usually put off until “later” ….but inevitably, out of sight equals out of mind, so I often miss out. Yea for this; I’m your new “most-devoted” reader.
Haha, thanks Josh, my new “most devoted” reader!
I wish you luck. My blog platform imposes a limit of 14,500 characters, including HTML, and I hit it every single time I post, forcing me to cut words, sometimes paragraphs, and trade my felicity of expression for a completed, through truncated thought. I spend the better part of each Monday researching, writing and editing, and any attempt to “write shorter” disappoints me.
Conventional wisdom is merely conventional, and not always so wise. Enjoy your experiment, but be assured that no matter how long your posts, you have readers who delight in your writing. Loquacious, maybe, but there’s neither prolixity nor verbosity. Write as you see fit; the readers will read as they see fit.
I really liked your “Geek Love” post. I don’t know your dating situation but I think it’d be interesting to follow up on a “Geek Love”-type of post. Or even in one of your posts you talked about how you were the odd one out compared to your family except your grandfather. Maybe talk about the humanities and the ups/downs compared to te so-called “hard” sciences. If you have time, please check out my two blogs! Thanks!
“I’m sorry to write you such a long letter; I didn’t have time to write a short one.” This is a modern interpretation of an apology from Blaise Pascal. I somewhat prefer a more faithful translation: “I have made this letter longer than usual, only because I have not had the leisure to make it shorter.”
In any case, I am sure you can relate to the sentiment.
Don’t worry about your long posts. They are well-crafted, articulate and thought-provoking. I enjoy them very much and can relate to much of what you say.
Kind regards.
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