Dec 14 2007
Keep it Short, Stupid
Those reading “Bernie” will find Part Nine picks up where Part Eight left off. Handy, eh?
In this space, I often post long missives whose message might be conveyed in far fewer words. I once read an article that stated the average Internet user has the attention span to read about 500 words. Yikes! That isn’t much space to convey my message. For those of us not doing this for money, making time to write short pieces is tough.
“What? It takes more time to write fewer words?” you might ask.
Yes, indeed. But don’t take it from me. Read the following quotes from two great minds of the past.
I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter.
Blaise Pascal, 1623 - 1662
I didn’t have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.
Mark Twain, 1835 - 1910
Apparently Twain was so terribly short on time that he didn’t have time to come up with an original quote.
In storytelling, there’s obviously a little more wiggle room because it’s often better to describe a place for the reader rather than merely state its name. For letters, e-mails, or essays — particularly for work, wordiness is far from Godliness.
For those with a little more time on their hands, here’s an informative (and mercifully brief) piece geared toward writing concise essays (because, after all, aren’t blog posts like little essays?), but that could prove useful for other applications:
http://www.paulgraham.com/writing44.html
