Word Count and Blog Post Length
I am long winded; always have been. I’ve been thinking about word count lately in regards to blog posts. All of the articles and advice say that I should keep posts short (250 to 500 words) approximately one screen full.
Looking back I am averaging 3 to 5 times that length. Most of my posts are in the 1200-1500 word range.
Blogging My Book
After coming across, Nina Amir’s website, How to Blog a Book, I have been considering blogging my book, Twirling Naked in the Streets—and no-one noticed, beginning at point this month. Twirling Naked…will be a memoir of sorts about growing up with undiagnosed autism.
It was originally my goal to have the book finished by the end of this year, and of course I let the end of the year get this close without making the progress I was aiming for. In fact, since the project remains mostly inside my head and not on paper, I decided to participate in this year’s WNFIN (Write Non-Fiction in November).
If I were to blog the book, meaning blog my writing as I write it allowing you all to read it as I go along, I need to figure out who much to post at a time. As some of you may have already figured out, I really can rambling on, and on, and on…
I Need Your Help
So back to your thoughts…do blog readers really enjoy reading shorter snippets? Am I long winded in my posts? Would you enjoy shorter more compact posts where I can explore subjects in smaller parts?
If you are reading this—would you return to read a blogged book?
I need some reader input, so what do you all think?
(This post runs approximately 300 words—see I can do short—er.)
I just found your blogged book two days ago, and since have devoured all you’ve written so far. I too think your posts could (should?) be longer, both to allow more content and detail, and for the depth of the story. Sometimes I felt teased! You are writing a BOOK, after all, and we book readers are quite used to chapter-length segments… (FYI I suspect my 8 yo daughter is on the spectrum, but intellectually and social adept enough that we cannot get a diagnosis — except OCD, ADHD, SPD and ODD — finding your writing has been a real gift for me, so thank you for sharing your experiences!)
Thank you Sarah, that means a lot to me. I think it is difficult for girls who tend to be able to blend in more, especially being smart and chatty, it becoms difficult to get a diagnosis.
What I am always leery is multiple diagnosis. That is how my life went…many differnet diagnosis that “explained” different aspects of my AS. Even when I began to suspect, I was met with opposition by health care professionals (at first). All of my wrong diagnosis finally fell by the wayside because AS explained it all!
Thank you so much Kate! I think I agree with you. I am working on writing smaller posts, AND trying to decide what is going to go into the story and I am finding that I too think they need to be longer.
I worry about being too long winded, but when I am looking back there is SO MUCH MORE I want to include. I guess the good part is when it is “finished” the book formatted version and be/and has be much more fleshed out. At least I think so anyway.
Thanks for your input and support. I think I am going to give writing longer sections a try with the next couple of them and see how they work out. In addition to wanting to make the stories better, I want to weave autism information into the book somewhere… so much to think about 🙂
I have read all the posts in the book and while I love them, sometimes I wish the stories could be fleshed out a little more. Seems sometimes like they end right as they’re getting good =) (They still ARE good, but they’d be even better longer) So that’s just my 2 cents, I like longer more in depth things myself but I’ll read whatever you write!
I enjoy your posts and don’t think they’re too long at all. It helps that you sometimes break them up into sections with subtitles. I’d love to read your book! Maybe worry about writing it offline first, then break it up into sections after so you don’t feel stuck or write less/more on a topic than you otherwise would because of blog constraints?
-mosaicofminds
I was thinking about this today. The book is underway, and I haven’t really broken it up into sections like I do with my regular blog posts, and am wondering if I should try to do so.
For now I am working on getting the story written and am trying to post it in small pieces so it doesn’t get too overwhelming (or boring) to read.
Hope you get a chance to check it out. When you do, be sure to tell me what you think. 🙂
I write for a parenting network for parents of kids with sensory processing disorder and I’m always asked to make my posts between 500-1500 words in length. I think it all depends on the quality of the content. Readers will read a post that is longer if it keeps them engaged.
I would love to read some of your writing, especially since I have effected quite a bit by my SPD. It is my biggest Aspie complaint.
i think there is a happy medium. 250 words is really quippy to me – not long enough to really explore anything. But over 1,000 words better be really good! I sympathize. I am also long winded – often posting 800 to 1,000 words. long posts can keep their quality and be made shorter 500-800 words is a good length to me. I don’t always achieve it, but I aim for it. hope that helps!
Thank you so much for your input, it does help. I am going to attempt to get the post down so they won’t be so long. But you are right, for me, 250 would be way too short to really say anything. I need more words than that!
Most writing can be cut by many words during editing and the writer be much stronger for it. I think my worry is that I am writing (first draft) and letting everyone read as I go if I stop to really make it tight I will not get through the whole thing. But–I am going to do the best that I can.
If you want to check out the book, its underway now at http://www.aspiewriter.wordpress.com. I made a page here on my blogger blog to reach it as well. Again, thanks so much for reading.
I have ranked my posts by number of page views and then tried to see if the shorter or longer posts seem to be most popular, but there didn’t seem to be any connection to post length at all. I think the quality of the writing and the topic have more to do with what makes people read a post and share it with their friends. Posts that cover bigger topics would reasonably result in longer posts. I have a post that is 4500 words long and is very popular. But some of my shorter posts are among my most popular too.
Thanks Aspie Kid! I haven’t been seeing an relation to word count on posts either, but I am fairly new at it so I needed more input. I guess what I really need to do is stop obsessing about the details (ya right!) and get to writing!
I will happily read longer posts if the content interests me. I’m longwinded too and have resorted to breaking superlong blog posts into a series of posts, but a lot of my posts are in the 1000-1500 word range too. It seems like longer posts are more informative/interesting. Maybe this is an aspie thing? Short posts are like small talk – nice but not necessarily a lot of substance. 🙂
I would read a blogged book, I think. It would depend on how frequent the posts were probably.
Hi Cynthia,
If I stop obsessing about the details and get to posting then I am thinking I have to post at least once per day, maybe even twice depending on how the writing day is going.
I was thinking the same as you that the shorter posts (for me) usually do not contain enough information, and then I go searching for more info. But on the same hand, there is so much that I want to read, but rarely have time to read 20 long posts…