Lorelle wrote an article for ProBlogger on the fact that the web is word based. When you’re online, you are reading. Which is why it is important to write well on your blog. My favorite point from the article was #7: “Don’t Waste Words”
A powerfully titled article drew me from my feed reader and I was greeted with this first sentence: “I still have to take a shower, and I’m late for work, but I wanted to tell you about this because I think it’s important, so I’ll just rush this off before I jump in the shower and head to work.” Don’t waste words. Don’t tell your readers things they really don’t want to know. Get to the point and stop wasting your time and theirs.
This is something I have purposed towards in the past few months. I don’t know how many posts I’ve written that could have been published with 2/3 less words (or more). Which is why #22 got put on my to-do list: “Clean Up Old Posts.”
Lorelle said:
Wow! Someone got that one. I’m so glad. There is so much word wasting on the web. When it works, it’s okay, but when it gets in the way of what you want to say…that’s just sad.
Living many years overseas in a language that was not my own, I treasure every word of that language I know in order to communicate. When I hear people rattling on about mindless stuff, I think about all those precious words and how valuable they are and how much they are wasting them. But they are the words in their language, their currency, so it’s theirs to waste. I have to hang on to the few I know that helps me buy bread and milk and pay my bills and find my way around a strange town. So I’ve learned to treasure the words I have. Not everyone has access enough to waste them.
Posted on April 6, 2007 at 12:44 am
{Shawn} said:
@ Lorelle: I’d say it works much less often than people who write it are recognizing. I used to write so much extra because I didn’t have a point to make and so I would just ramble until I figured something out. Sort of like verbal processing within a blog post.
Posted on April 6, 2007 at 5:47 am
Ryan Couch said:
@ Lorelle: Great thoughts! Thanks
@ Shawn: Last night our community group did a study on “How God Expresses Himself” - through Gen 1 - in Creation and in speaking Words. Words of power, transcendence, and life that brought light. Then in John 1 - the Word had life within Him, and that life shown forth as the light of men. Hebrews 1:3 says Jesus is the “expressed image of the Father”. There is a deep mystery here, and its’ helping me even understand the power of my own words and why God takes it so seriously that we “control our tongue” for truly from it comes the power of life and death!
Posted on April 6, 2007 at 9:26 am
Molly Mosack said:
Less is more! Simple and to the point always draws me in.
Posted on April 6, 2007 at 12:29 pm
{Shawn} said:
@ Ryan: Oh man, that is one of my favorite Bible topics. Jesus is the Word of God. He’s the spoken Word. Through Him creation was made. He is the express image of the Father… That is a study that will lead to fascination. I love how you brought that up.
Posted on April 6, 2007 at 12:31 pm