As a writer, I am constantly reading. I read the news, blogs and even aerospace industry publications. Probably the most important thing, and least applied, in all of this writing is brevity. Keep it simple, sexy (much less hateful than ‘stupid’). I’m busy, you’re busy, we are all extremely busy. None of us have the time to sift through 3,000 words of prose in one sitting. If you do, then let’s talk because I want to know your time management secrets or your superhero speed-reading skills.
One of the issues that bothers me most is how long it takes some people to get to the point. It’s not the words themselves. I usually love reading detailed blog posts and feature stories that are well written and suck my interest in right from the beginning. But that’s not always the case.
This week, I’m reading Edward Said’s Orientalism for a master’s class. It’s painful. I could have said everything he took several pages to say in about three. I get it: English colonialism of the Orient was bred from and perpetuated negative stereotypes against those of non-Western descent. I didn’t even have to take a breath. Yeah, I know there’s more to it and all sorts of evidence on which to base these claims, but don’t drag it out, man.
I could never be an academic. 
Keep it short is what I try and do all the time on my blog. I have a hard time paying attention if it is too long. School books sometimes are soooo annoying because they like to stretch them out.
I hear you on this. I bought a book on dealing with insomnia and the guy went on for 150 pages about how he learned his techniques. Too bad I was so completely bored with his book that I never made it to the part that might actually help me.
Oh, BRAVO! Get to the point.
Or, if you are going to be long…at least use the return button. Nothing sends me running faster than a big block of text!
Or how about breaking it up into a series of posts? That would be a great hook to get return readers.