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Hearing Some awful cartoon on Cartoon Network
Wednesday Tip #2: Entry Length
One of the biggest changes between the first version of AOL Journals and later updates is the maximum length of entries. The first iteration was limited to 2,500 characters per entry -- or about 400 words. The current set-up, however, allows for 25,000 characters per entry, which comes out to -- can you guess? -- about 4,000 words max. That's a lot of words, and on average more than most people are going to use in an entry. So the question becomes: how long should you make your entries?
The short answer is: just as long as they need to be. Sometimes you want to write something long and involved; sometimes you want to be short and sweet. If you're writing a Journal entry and it just keeps going -- and you're okay with that -- then let it ride; obviously you've got something you want to say. On the other hand, if you've said everything you need to say about a particular subject in just a few words, there's no need to pad -- you're not being paid by the word, after all.
Having said that, there is something to be said for keeping your entries shorter than longer. Part of this is the nature of reading online -- fact is, most people don't read too many long things online; the most common things people read online are e-mails and IMs, both of which tend to be very short. Most blog entries out there in the blogoverse are also fairly short (with a few notable exceptions). When confronted by a whole lot of verbiage in a Journal post, a lot of people will say "eh... maybe I'll read this later," and move on.
Use as many words as you need, but whenever you can, see if you can shorten your longer entries. In other words: Try to edit your piece before you upload it. This is a pretty simple process: re-read your entry before you post. Are there things you've written that can be written shorter? Are you repeating points? Shorten and tighten -- you find that it makes your points more forceful. Does your long entry start talking about one thing and end up talking about another? Think about splitting the entry into two separate posts, one for each subject. Even a quick re-read will help.
If your entry does end up being a long one, here are some quick tips on making it more readable:
1. Use paragraphs! A big long block of text is really, really hard to read. By breaking up your text, you make it easier for other people to read your thoughts.
2. Don't use all caps. Using all caps on occasion is fine, but USING IT ALL THE TIME MAKES IT SEEM LIKE YOU'RE YELLING AT YOUR READER. Unless that's what you're planning to do, try not to.
3. Consider your Journal's color scheme: Long passages of text are easier to read when they're dark text on a light background (there's a reason I keep this Journal with black text on a white background).
These will help your entries do what you want them to do: Be read!
Written by johnmscalzi Blog about this entry |
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Oh this is wonderful! All caps are too hard to read as well. I just hate all caps journals. I am having such a hard time reading journals that are color on color. Some of us have a certain eye condition that makes it very, very difficult to read these...i.e.yellow on green, red on black. I hope that writers will take this into consideration!
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Thanks for mentioning the color scheme tip. As I age, I find it harder and harder to read bright colored print on a dark background. There are probably many journals that I would read more often, but they just hurt my eyes too much. But I have to admit, those with black backgrounds sure are pretty to look at!
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As someone who has been known to occasionally write (ahem!) long posts, I think these are all good suggestions. One other one I would add is that inserting bolded sub-heads into the text, like in newspaper and magazine articles, also helps break a long post into more digestable pieces.
A couple of blogs that I think are really good at doing long posts would be (1) the writer/journalist David Neiwert at his Orcinus blog:
http://dneiwert.blogspot.com/
Neiwert uses sub-heads, lists, and links in a color that really stands out to help frame long posts. For his really long essays, he breaks them into multiple installments.
Another one is AOL-Jer Marcia Ellen, who uses pictures, numbering and variable font sizes to break up long posts:
http://journals.aol.com/happyb8888/MarciaEllenLifeAsItOught ToBe/
- Bruce
http://journals.aol.com/bmiller224/OldHickorysWeblog -
:::raising hand::: I got a question. If we sign up for alerts whenever a journal is updated, we get emails containing the text of the journal's entries. But those emails will truncate at a certain length -- requiring you to then go to the journal and read the entry, or (more likely) just ignore the rest of it. The question is: At how many words will the email cut off?
1/13/05 5:59 PM
Vickey
http://journals.aol.com/hopel