No More 25,000-Word Posts

On going on like a pork chop, the one thing worth practising, and writing posts people actually read.

Trying to write a short post in La Fortuna, Costa Rica 🇨🇷

Today’s post is about practising the thing that moves you closer to the result you want.

For me, the result I want right now is more engagement on my daily posts. And the thing I need to practise to get there is brevity. Because even the most interesting content in the world gets skipped if it’s too unwieldy and we’ve got more important things to focus on.

So this is a post about writing a post that’s 500 words or less.

Brevity has never been my forte. I talk too much, write too much, waffle on too much (my husband calls it going on like a pork chop — not sure what pork chops have to do with it 🤷🏻‍♀️).

My webinars or workshops always have 10 points instead of 1. And I usually end up overwhelming & confusing my audience instead of leaving them with a memorable takeaway.

Here’s an example of a post I wrote about how we built our Amazon business. I don’t expect you to read it all, it’s 12,500 words long!

That’s just one blog post. I wrote another one about starting a blog (no longer live - needs updating) which was 25,000 words long! That’s a book! (Note to self - turn the draft into a small book Jo! 💡)

When my daughter told me she had a 4000 word essay she had to write for school my reaction was a smirk & ‘That’s just a pen stroke, before morning coffee’ (yeah that went down well 😉).

But my goal with my daily posts here is to write short meaningful, entertaining, engaging, informative, sometimes educational posts that you enjoy reading each day.

Not war and peace that you skip or shove in your ‘later’ file because you don’t have time to read.

What’s the point in me writing if you don’t have the time to read!

So. My goal is to shorten my general daily posts. Kill my darlings as the saying goes.

Say only what needs saying. Keep my points short, make one observation per post and stay around 500 words or less. Which will take you approximately 3-4 mins to read.

I want my daily posts to become a must read. A daily dose of Jo. Something fun, amusing, interesting, inspiring, insightful or encouraging.

Something you read because you know it’s going to brighten your day, make you think about something differently, or give you the courage to take some action.

So that’s what I’ll be practicing. Writing short, engaging posts that become ‘easy must reads’ every day. (I can’t guarantee I’ll always be successful, but I will be trying!)

What result do you want?

What/how are you practicing to make it happen?

Let me know in the comments below & let’s cheer each other on!

Ok how have I done?

469 words! Yipppee! I look forward to chatting in the comments.

See you tomorrow (483 😉)

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