014 • How to write short-form content

Hey there...

Today's issue is going to be about short-form writing.

I've been doing more of this ever since I stopped writing as often on Medium (a decision I explained in last week's issue). On X/Twitter, and more recently LinkedIn (links in the issue footer), I've been posting my short-form ideas, thoughts and advice.

This issue I'm going to share with you what advice and wisdom I've gathered from spending some time doing this.

From my experience, it all comes down to making an impression on a reader as quickly as possible.

There are multiple ways to do this, and we're going to break them down in this issue, starting with the content and the words that you use in this content...

The words you use don't matter

Just wait.

I'll explain this. They do matter in the sense that your work doesn’t exist if not put into words, but more important is whether the idea or knowledge behind your writing is conveyed in the way you want.

This is quite independent of how you choose your vocab, being more dependent on voice, style and the actual idea you put across.

The idea has to evoke an emotion in the person reading it. This is especially true for short-form content, or people just scroll past.

You need to strike a chord with your reader.

You don't have to be controversial, dividing those reading into two opposing camps. You can still evoke a connection by being relatable through stories of setbacks and achievements.

Moving on to a more technical point - I read a piece by Paul Graham recently that suggested something interesting about good writing. He said good writing would be that which transmitted an idea into the head of the reader without them noticing the medium (words).

It's the idea that out there, there is an order of words that is most optimal for conveying the idea or premise behind a piece of content without friction.

This, although impossible, is a good target to aim for. You don't want your readers to have to stop to figure out what you mean, hence why so many suggest writing using very simple language.

You don't want the reader to focus on the words, you want them to focus on the content.

It's somewhat paradoxical to say that the writing interferes with a written piece. Despite this, at times it can. You want people to focus on the message and think about how it applies to them, rather than to have to try to understand the text.

'Body language’ is as important as in real life

I've come up with an idea over my time writing all kinds of work on the internet. It's that 'formatting and structure are the body language of the written word'.

Well-known is the fact that we judge people off their body language and demeanour before we even get a chance to speak to them. Someone scrolling through a feed of short-form text is no different.

If your words are all in a block, it's no different to hunching yourself over and speaking quickly to get your say in before people lose interest.

Take up space in your writing. Vary sentence length.

Add emphasis.

All these things relate to similar aspects of body language that convey a sense of a person when we meet them in the real world. In this case, it's over a short piece of text instead.

This is so important.

You don't get a chance to turn the reader's opinion of you around in a short piece. There's no choice but to make a great first impression, using the variety of tools, vocabulary and otherwise, at your disposal.

It's a cutthroat world, short-form writing.

You might find something that you labour over for hours doesn't resonate, whereas something you posted on a whim when you felt inspired seems to click with your audience.

Whether this does or doesn't happen doesn't matter. The good thing is these pieces of work are short. A single piece of writing on Twitter is likely not going to have been your life purpose for the last few years the same way a novel might.

You can keep working and iterating. The more you do this, the closer you get to perfection. The closer you get to captivating the reader and delivering an idea without them realising they've read words to access it.

This is the purest form of connection with your audience.

Be known for delivering your ideas and knowledge well through the written word. This is good writing in itself. It's not the number of different words you know or how many you can write in a short space of time.