I remember very well the first time I gave a workshop on film-making. There was so much to tell about every concept that I could write a book out of it. I wanted to tell them everything I could. No doubt I lost track and everyone was inspired, overwhelmed and confused.

After that time a senior told me the following short story.

Once there was a man who loved talking and hearing his own voice. He went on stage and talked and talked. His wife, sitting in the audience, passed a small piece of paper to the person sitting in front of her. She told him not to open it but to pass it so that it reaches her husband.

The piece of paper traveled and thanks to human curiosity, on its way, it was opened.

The man in front row handed the paper to speaker saying, “Your wife loves you so much, she couldn’t wait to send you a kiss!’

He opened the paper and she had written K.I.S.S. on it. The speaker smiled and replied to the man in the front row. He said that his wife didn’t send him a kiss but this was her way to remind him to ‘Keep It Short Stupid!’

And so it is true for bloggers and their blogs – K.I.S.S.

Long Articles = Overwhelmed Readers

I know how it feels when you want to tell so much about a subject that the article exceeds 1500 words! I am quite used to writing those articles myself. But if you want to tell so much, you’d better write a book. Blogs are updated daily.  Schools are held daily.  Pills are not taken at one go.

Why?

Because the way to eat an elephant is to eat it in small pieces. The readers do want to know all, but not all at one go. They want to know as much as they can digest easily. So write less but write useful.

Short Articles = Effective Articles

We all know how it felt back in school to study a whole book the night before an exam. I used to think that it wouldn’t have been like this if only I studied daily. Learning in small amounts regularly is fun and effective. Well I can’t remember anything from 11^th hour cramming but I do remember what I studied in school.

5 Pointers

A post should contain nearly 5 points that you want to convey. Your audience might manage to remember more than that somehow but won’t be able to use them all. From articles like ’101 Tips on Effective Articles’ I can hardly recall 7-8 and I’ve used not more than 4-5.

Some people even make it simpler – they write a post about each point. Woah! Now you have 5 articles instead of one.

Keep’em Waiting…Keep ‘Em Coming

I know sometimes I can’t resist writing a long article.  Maybe I was afraid that I might lose the idea or that I won’t be able to create the flow of ideas. At times like those, I divide the article into parts.

Articles like  ‘Interview with Blogging Master-mind  Part I and Part II’ keeps us waiting and we keep coming back. It’s more effective than an hour long biographical-documentary movie about Nick and Blogging.