Stop Wasting People’s Time with Long Articles

write less, and say more

I read a lot of medium articles. More accurately, I start reading a lot of medium articles, and somewhere in the middle I get bored and move on.

I’d rather watch a live stream of a woman in a bikini eating 20 pounds of lobster, than strain my eyes reading another regurgitation of the same 20 previous lines.

The theme in the blog world is to write an article that is a minimum of 1,000–1,500 words. Fill the crevices of the screen with loose words and fluff. Just get to that number.

The pressure is on!

This way of thinking goes back to school days, and writing papers in class. When teachers hand out the guidelines for a new assignment, there’s always a rule mandating a minimum amount of pages. That minimum must be met, or else points will be deducted.

“10 page minimum: Even if it sucks!”

With dread in our hearts, we begrudgingly fill blank spaces with endless and pointless words. That’s how we were taught.

But honestly, what is the point of writing a 1,000 word article if you only have a 50% read through rate? The audience is halfway listening, even if they tried to fully comprehend. They couldn’t sit through the fluff.

Filling space for validity’s sake is an old way of thinking. Maybe that worked back in the day because there was less to do, and people’s main source of distraction was via reading. But today’s world is filled with an enormous amount of information and entertainment outlets. Attention spans are short.

I mean I just watched 10 short “Tik Tok” videos of people dancing to “Savage” today in less than 4 minutes. Without regret, I’ll likely end up watching 10 more when I get off work. Why? Because short content is King-so why do people assume it would be different when it comes to writing articles?

“A recent study found that the average human attention span has fallen from 12 seconds in 2000 (or around the time smartphones hit the scene) to eight seconds today.”

Considering work, I read that the average person on medium reads to and from their job. They’re also reading on a lunch break. Your audience is reading on a limited timeframe-respect that. They have enough disposable income to be a medium member, but not disposable time. Reduce that 5-minute essay to 2 minutes, for their sake.

Adapt your writing the way youtube videos have done with “jump cuts”. Edit your paper. Keep the best parts. Don’t be afraid to cross out anything and everything that isn’t bringing value to the reader.

Undoubtedly you have some important things to say, and vital information to share. Sometimes a long article is the only way to explain it all. But I have found this to be true for 2% of the articles I read. Everything else has a lot of muck, and I hate mucking about.

Respect people’s most precious and mysterious gift: time.

Make every word count.