Editor’s Choice — Top 10: Short-Form Writing Is the Toughest Thing to Do

Discover ideas offered by our top 10 writers today

We are floating in a sea of information — we have to write short.

Our readers crave information but are time-starved. No matter how short you write your reader is never satisfied.

If you write a 7-minute story, the average reading time would be 3 minutes. But if you write a 3-minute story, the average reading time is 50 seconds.

Writing short is hard.

Read this fun anecdote about writing short, published in the New York Times, about famous novelist E. L. Doctorow:

One morning at breakfast, when she was in the first or second grade, E. L. Doctorow’s daughter, Caroline, asked her father to write a note explaining her absence from school, due to a cold, the previous day. Doctorow began, “My daughter, Caroline.…” He stopped. “Of course she’s my daughter,” he said to himself. “Who else would be writing a note for her?” He began again. “Please excuse Caroline Doctorow.…” He stopped again. “Why do I have to beg and plead for her?” he said. “She had a virus. She didn’t commit a crime!” On he went, note after failed note, until a pile of crumpled pages lay at his feet. Finally, his wife, Helen, said, “I can’t take this anymore,” penned a perfect note and sent Caroline off to school. Doctorow concluded: “Writing is very difficult, especially in the short form.”

Christopher Johnson, in his book Microstyle: The Art of Writing Little, writes, “Messages of just a word, a phrase, or a short sentence or two — micromessages — lean heavily on every word and live or die by the tiniest stylistic choices. Micromessages depend not on the elements of style but on the atoms of style.” To which Roy Peter Clark adds, “Not just the atoms of style but the quirks and quarks of style as well.”

The most important part of writing short is editing. Can you mercilessly cut the extra words? To write short, you have to read short form — a lot.

Once you have written your piece, try to replace words and adjust the position of sentences. Write 6 line paragraphs but cut them down to 2 or 3 or 4 lines.

In a world full of images — and movies — your words have to be worth a thousand pictures.

Let’s read the top 10 writers who managed to express more than many pictures:

10. 3 Incredibly Simple and Effective Ways to Boost Your Writing Success

Dawn Bevier is a teacher and a writer. She is an accomplished writer with a compelling voice. Follow her. Read her. You’ll love her work. Promise.

I’ve been writing for quite a while. I’ve thought about giving up so so many times. But there’s an inner Yoda inside me that says, ”Keep going, young Jedi. You have the power, but the Force is not mastered easily. Learn more, you must.”

And it’s been exasperating at times. And tiring. And disappointing. But I have attained so much information by pushing forward. I’ve begun to learn the “writing ropes,” and I’m growing now both as an artist and as a marketer of my own work.

9. How to Write Stories That Make People Feel Something

Dayton Parks is a superb writer. He writes every day. If you like this story, please check his other work as well. Let’s learn to create emotions through our words.

The best writers strive for an emotional reaction to their writing. They use the skills they’ve mastered to create hope, sadness, empathy, fear, or another emotion. Using emotions, the writer connects with the reader.

How do you write an emotional story?

Mastering emotional writing isn’t easy. Writers create an emotional response by digging into their own psyche. The result is the reader will feel anxiety, hope, happiness, or fear.

To write a story that makes readers emotional, write about things that create emotions in your own life.

8. I Broke Up With My Mentor

Rozali Telbis is an excellent writer. Her style is simple, direct, and engaging. You’ll love her honest writing voice. Don’t miss this one.

I recently went back to school as I was preparing to make a career change. The vocational school I attended had a career mentorship program — and being in a state of career purgatory, I was eager to enrol and learn (and unlearn) everything I could from an established professional. I hadn’t had a mentor before so I was anxious and excited for what was to come.

Before being matched, I was required to submit a detailed application and undergo a brief interview process to assess the best mentor match. The process assuaged some concerns I had about how mentors and mentees are matched.

7. Skiing During the Pandemic

Tom Johnson is a cheesemaker, writer, and drummer. He writes about business, music, politics, and life. His writing style is informal and compelling. If you like his story, don’t forget to read his other stories.

As the holidays approach and the coronavirus pandemic enters a dangerous new phase, many skiers wonder whether it’s safe to return to the slopes.

Last week, my wife and I got a first hand look. If our experience is any indication, the industry could be in for a challenging season.

Thanksgiving Day marked the beginning of ski season at many resorts across the U.S. We spent the day skiing at Big Sky, Montana’s largest and best known ski resort.

6. How My Career Went into A Different Direction Than I Expected

Sarah Seweryniak is an exceptional writer. Her style is full of suspense and drama. If you started reading her story, you’d not be able to click away easily. You’ll like her story and fall in love with her style. Don’t miss it.

I’ve always loved movies. When my dad asked me what I wanted to do when I grew up, I told him I wanted to be an actress. When I was a senior in high school, I decided to be practical and pursue broadcast journalism.

I majored in Communications in college. The most incredible thrill came when I received an opportunity to intern at a local broadcast station. My dream of being behind the camera was becoming a reality.

Unfortunately, through the experience, I realized working in broadcasting wasn’t for me. I didn’t realize how “cutthroat” broadcast journalism is. My life was playing out like Winona Ryder’s character in Reality Bites.

5. What Every Writer Should Stop Doing — Eating Their Marshmallow

Naf Beltran writes in bursts fueled by coffee. You’ll like the story and do not eat your marshmallow — take it slow. Relax. Don’t miss this one.

I can feel the rush inside me. I have to write every day as part of my writing challenge.

Don’t procrastinate, I will tell myself. But wait, shouldn’t I at least fix my bed first, before heading to my laptop?

Sometimes the ‘I’ wins, the writer wins, or the ‘id’ wins, the one who can’t delay the gratification of seeing his story done and finished.

I have to be honest. I have been writing one story a day, and if I can squeeze in another story after I finish, I will write some more.

4. What It Takes To Conquer Your Email Inbox

Jack Heimbigner is an author and a coach. He is an excellent writer. If you like this story, do check his other work. Don’t miss it if you are always fighting with your inbox like me.

How many emails do you receive in any given week? How about a month or a year? I’ve never really thought about it too much, though I do receive a lot of emails between work and home. I also have a few emails for different writing ventures so there is that too.

When I decided to look into how many emails were coming and going like paper airplanes in Harry Potter, I was surprised to find out that at any given day, you and I receive around 88 emails per day.

Let’s do a little math on that, 88 emails a day for 365 days in a year comes out to 32,000+ emails a year.

3. Black Female Professional. Desperately Seeking Mentor.

Rebecca Stevens A. is a global nomad-Sierra Leone-Switzerland-Canada-Sociologist-Philosopher-Writer-Swimmer-Paraglider-Dog lover-Passionate-Kind-Impatient Optimist-Pro-Democracy-Brave.

If you read the intro of this list, she is using micromessages to narrate her entire life story. That is the spirit of writing short.

She is an extraordinary writer. Follow her. Read her. Wait for her next story.

I’m not looking for just anyone to mentor me. I am looking for someone who understands what it means to be different from one’s colleagues. I am looking for someone who empathizes, who understands that it is not easy to navigate a dominantly white corporate world.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying I want a mentor that looks like me, I’m saying I want a mentor who understands how it feels to always be in the minority — in a way, to be the underdog. Why do I insist on this? Because I truly believe that if you can put yourself in the shoes of someone of an underrepresented group, the quality of mentoring you’ll give me will be richer, mutually fulfilling, and definitely much more useful.

2. Republicans: The Real Victims in All This

At number two, read Dr. Dion’s viral piece. She is an outstanding writer. Her style is engaging and full of suspense. Don’t miss this one. And don’t forget to check her other work.

If you missed Donald Trump’s first rally since losing the presidential election to Joe Biden by almost 7 million votes, the entirety of his nearly 2-hour rant can be summed up in three sentences he bellowed to an adoring Georgia crowd:

“We’re all victims. Everybody here, all these thousands of people here tonight, they’re all victims. Every one of you.”

Donald Trump’s message to the largely White, male, conservative, Republican crowd is a simple, yet sinister one. Whenever you don’t win, whenever you lose, it is not because you tried and fought hard, but were bested by a stronger competitor. It is because you were cheated.

1. The True Danger of Trump’s Bottomless Coup

At number one, read Steve QJ’s viral piece. He is an excellent writer. His commentary is easy to read and engaging. Today he is telling us about an entertaining and melodramatic coup. Don’t miss it.

The biggest problem with Donald Trump’s ongoing coup is that it’s been so wonderfully entertaining. From the Four Seasons Total Landscaping debacle to the sight of Rudy Giuliani dissolving into a puddle of Just For Men and shame, to…whatever this is, it’s been the kind of reality TV spectacular that Trump could only have dreamed of whilst firing people on The Apprentice.

In fact, it’s been so entertaining, that it feels melodramatic to describe it as a coup at all. Coups are violent, bloody affairs that happen in failed states half a world away or in the grim, authoritarian past. They’re ghost stories designed to scare the weak-minded. Depending on where you sit politically, what we’re witnessing now, is either the last, vain attempt of an egomaniac to avoid admitting defeat or a righteous campaign to stand up for those who voted for him. And whichever it is, it’ll be over in a few months, right?

Final Thoughts

If your story was selected as one of the Top 10, please share another one of your stories in the comments with a brief introduction and a short review that can convince a reader to read your piece. (Please write the review in the third person and start it with your name.)

I must have missed something today. I cannot read every story on Illumination and Illumination-Curated. Dr Mehmet Yildiz, the Chief Editor and Founder of Illumination and Illumination-Curated, read, highlighted, and applauded every good story when he started his publications. He still reads almost all of the good ones. I try — and fail daily — to read all of the masterpieces.

So, help me. Help me to find and rank the best work of the writers of Illumination and Illumination-Curated.

Happy reading.

To improve your chances of success as a writer, read these highly recommended curation guidelines:

You can read my curated stories here.

Note: Heading came from ‘How to Write Short’ by Roy Peter Clark.