🔪 TREE 758: Again, half as long
One of my favourite podcasts is Krishnan Guru-Murthy’s Ways to Change the World. His final question to every guest is, If you could change the world in any way, what would you change?
My conscience wouldn’t let me start with this, but once 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:
Early Twitter was my school of brevity. I joined in the fun olden days when you were only allowed 140 characters, including hashtags and links.
‘If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter.’ —everyone, apparently
If you find the time to write less, you may be read more.
Happy weekend!
Jeff
I think of those prompts, “Jump to recipe.” This is when you look up a recipe and they tell you all about why they love the recipe for paragraphs upon paragraphs, and all you want is to know how to combine kale and tomatoes and beans into an interesting dish. I hit “jump to recipe” and it gives me a sense of purpose and satisfaction. Reading your writings is like that; A sense of learning something useful; taking it with you without having to read a lot before the punchline.
Free publishing has democratized writing and editors everywhere are cringing and screaming into the void: KILL YOUR DARLINGS! 😂 “Half as long” is much less violent, you’re right.