Short Pieces More Interesting
Alison Jae posed this question yesterday in one of her posts, and you have to wonder if she had a point.
OK. We all know that the average attention span of the viewing public is relatively short. They spot a title that looks a bit interesting and click onto it, but if it loads too slowly, or doesn’t grip them from the word go, then they can easily click off again before the view has even registered.
That being so, would it make more sens to keep posts short and punchy, saying only part of what you meant to convey in part one, and leaving the viewer dangling so that they have to click on to part two, if they want to finish thier read, giving you two for the price of one? It could well be a sensible strategy, with the modern pencant for quick, quick, quick entertainment and light reading.
Very often, what you want to getr across could easily be said in a less verbose fashion, something which many readers might actually welcome, as the less time they have to spend soaking up the pearls of wisdom imparted by your post, the more time they have for clicking on to others, giving you, as aninteresting writer, which of course you are, the oportunity to see more of your short masterpieces being read.
I will admit that I have, in the past and more than once, over-egged the literary pudding by saying far more than I needed to, but not on this occasion, because brevity is what we are debating here. I wrote this brief post as an experiment in seeing how many people take the trouble to look at it, hpw many commernt on it and effective the srategy of short,snappy posts might be.
Getting the take of others on this intriguing notion will be fascinating in itself. How short is too short, thugh, and how do you strike the perfect balance? I look forward to finding out how well this format does, and if it DOES work, trying to implement it more often by carefully choosing topics that that can be covered in 500 words or less, another interesting challenge. Let the experiment begin!
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Tags: Alison Jae, effectiveness, interest, Posts, shorts, topics, Writing
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March 27th, 2011 at 3:46 am
So now you’re experimenting the lenght that people read the most. How would you rate this article then – short, perfect or something else?
March 27th, 2011 at 3:50 am
Good article. Just remember to spell check – saw a few errors. I’d gladly take the challenge.
March 27th, 2011 at 3:55 am
When I wrote short stories, I put them in multiple parts. I get more total views for them completely reading the story, they can click off an article and read the next part the next day. Also means I can submit it as I write it.
March 27th, 2011 at 4:09 am
good post..
March 27th, 2011 at 4:35 am
Great article, I always try and keep my articles as to the point as possible
March 27th, 2011 at 4:50 am
Your experiment is working regarding short stories being read more than long, drawn out epics. No matter how compelling a story may be, if we are writing and reviewing other articles then how do we find the time to read a several page narrative?
March 27th, 2011 at 5:12 am
I think it depends on the article but that is just me
. Good job.
March 27th, 2011 at 8:55 am
nice info.. good work
March 27th, 2011 at 9:33 am
eh.. that is a nice article. Useful tips especially for the new writers, you should well check for every of your writing articles.
March 27th, 2011 at 11:57 am
thanks for the tips =)
March 27th, 2011 at 9:53 pm
The good
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March 29th, 2011 at 5:50 pm
Like someone else pointed out, a few errors. I don’t know which program you use but Word can help spell check!
And I do like shorter articles.