One of my favourite podcasts is Krishnan Guru-Murthy’s Ways to Change the World. He always asks his guest, If you could change the world in any way, what would you change?
My conscience wouldn’t let me start with this, but once the climate, child poverty and education were sorted, I’d turn my attention to writing.
I think the biggest problem with writing is there’s too much of it. The internet has removed all limits on length which hasn’t been good for the craft . I wish I could require every writer of every blog and newsletter (with maybe four exceptions) to cut the length of their posts by a minimum of 50%.
This scene from A River Runs Through It imprinted itself on me permanently when I was a teenager:
I was on Twitter in the olden days when you were only allowed 140 characters, including hashtags and links. It was a useful and delightful school of brevity.
‘If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter.’ —everyone, apparently
If you make the time to write less, you’re likely to be read more.
—Jeff
This is one of the things Jeff has taught me. Don’t bore your readers with being wordy Problem is, I like being wordy.
Grow slowly
Skyler
Less, can be more😉