Make Every Sentence Count
In the past, when I've written things they've often been long winded, rambling, and generally too jam packed with unnecessary words, phrases, sentences, and even paragraphs (much like this opening sentence actually). I'm writing now to tell you not to do that.
You might think writing long winded pieces will get you glory. They won't. You might think long winded pieces will get you women. They won't. I've found that, despite the impressiveness of a long article, things that are short, focused, and to the point have been the most popular pieces I've written.
When someone reads a sentence and the only thing they come away with is that they've just read a bunch of gibberish that doesn't provide anything worthwhile, it increases the likelihood that they will just stop reading. Your article might be full of all kinds of great information, but if you have to dig to get it, that's gonna turn away a lot of readers.
I had an epiphany around my twelfth beer one night several years ago and realized that people are lazy or people are in a hurry or both. Since then, whenever I write something, I try and go through it and make sure every sentence does something either to forward my point, tell a joke (even if it falls flat), or needlessly insult a Canadian (Celine Deon sucks!).
Anything that doesn't fit one of these criteria, I simply delete from my article. If it doesn't matter to the reader, I'm not going to subject them to reading it. It's hard enough to get visitors to come and read the quality material, why would I want to chase them away with a bunch of crap?
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