Write Less, Please [updated]
Become a more skilled, versatile, deep-thinking writer
When this post first appeared, it created some controversy. It even sparked an excellent counter-post—“Against Branding (and Sarah Fay)”—from the excellent
. (I joked that his post would have been better if it had been shorter.)I’m not against long-form. I write long-form. I teach long-form at Northwestern. One of my long-form essays, “On Solitude (and Isolation and Loneliness [and Brackets]),” appeared on Longreads (note the name) and was a notable mention in Best American Essays.
“Long-form” is now considered anything over 800-1500 words. (There was a time when long-form was anything over 3000-5000 words. No longer.)
If you’re offering great writing on Substack, write as much as you want. Or give your subscribers the audio option.1 (More on this below.)
“Great” writing doesn’t necessarily mean you have to be a great stylist, journalist, or literary writer; it can also translate into being masterfully personable (which doesn’t mean talking about yourself all the time).2
But very few people on Substack are doing that.
What’s below is just data—numbers to show you readers’ habits. Plus, below I give you two easy ways to write shorter posts and a tip if you still really want to write long-form.
This post is also meant to free those who think you should write a lot. More doesn’t equal better.3 We think it does, but it absolutely doesn’t, especially in the era of subscription fatigue.
Read on and enjoy!
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