Writing Lightly

You have to write lightly for blogs. I grow weary of weighty content, but at the same time, I recently strung together a bunch of “how to” e-mails for easier reading and discovered so much fluff I was just about ready to open a teddy bear factory.

Too much heavy and I suddenly don’t have the energy to read it. Too much fluff and my reading calendar is suddenly full, my goodness how busy I am. Now, I like a good longform post. I love a good website about deep geopolitical stuff and it rubs me the wrong way when there are too many posts comparing everything to Star Wars “Empire vs. Rebels” strategies. Still, there’s a certain element of lightness that has to come into writing.

You can lighten with good headings and bullet points. You can lighten with humor. You can lighten with inclusion of personal stories to frame the data and evidence. Writing has to be digestible and palatable. Make use of design elements like contrast and spacing. Bring in charts where appropriate.

Sometimes I have a philosophical bent. “What DO toothpicks say about the human condition?” – too heavy about too light. Well, it might be worth a blog post, as long as I can bring you to a worthy point at the end of a blog post. Is there more? Read the rest of the (hypothetical!) series! Philosophical is necessary, but it’s got to be real to people. The implications have to be made clear.

This isn’t really about getting philosophical. It’s about writing lightly for blogging.

Image by Petar Milošević